Rudy Giuliani "entirely made up" the scenario that special counsel Robert Mueller has to wrap up his investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election by Sept. 1, Reuters reported on Monday.
Giuliani, lead attorney of President Donald Trump’s legal team, told The New York Times that Mueller mentioned the date amid negotiations over whether the president will be grilled by investigators. He added that waiting longer would risk influencing voters in the midterm elections.
But Reuters’ Doina Chiacu quoted a source familiar with the Mueller probe as saying the Sept. 1 deadline was "entirely made-up" and "another apparent effort to pressure the special counsel to hasten the end of his work."
The source, a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that Mueller will "wrap it up when he thinks he’s turned over every rock.
"And when that is will depend on how cooperative witnesses, persons of interest and maybe even some targets are, if any of those emerge, and on what new evidence he finds, not on some arbitrary, first-of-the-month deadline one of the president’s attorneys cooks up.”
Giuliani’s claim came the same day Trump demanded the Justice Department launch an investigation into whether the FBI or Department of Justice had “infiltrated or surveilled” his campaign for “political purposes" and if any Obama administration officials were involved.
The Trump administration has been increasingly adamant that the Mueller probe end soon.
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