Trump attorney and spokesman Rudy Giuliani was in Israel on Wednesday, where the AP reports he told a group in Tel Aviv that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was “trying to frame” Donald Trump. It was only the latest of several statements intended to reverse the role of suspect and investigators, and follows a tweet from Trump in which he stated that “Comey and the boys were doing a number on” Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
According to Giuliani, Mueller’s team is made up of ...
“13 highly partisan Democrats ... (who) are trying very very hard to frame him to get him in trouble when he hasn’t done anything wrong.”
In addition to repeating Trump’s unfounded claims about the political orientation of the investigators, and using language intended to make the FBI seem like the Mafia, Giuliani followed up by echoing another Trump claim, saying again that Trump could pardon himself. This claim followed a letter revealed over the weekend in which Trump’s legal team argued that he was immune, not just to charges of obstruction, but to any charge at all—a position that Giuliani emphasized by saying Trump could shoot Comey without consequence.
Trump repeated the insistence that the investigation itself was illegal in tweets Tuesday evening, extending his previous rhetoric about the investigation. Rather than the actions of his campaign, Trump is now comparing the investigation of those actions to Watergate.
Taken at face value, the repeated insistence that Trump is not only above the law, but that law enforcement itself is criminal, would seem laughable. However, despite statements from Democrats such as Adam Schiff, Republicans have notably not contradicted Trump’s claims. Which makes the statements less amusing, and considerably more frightening.
