On Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani fell back on Donald Trump’s last line of legal defense. As CNN reported, when Donald Trump’s attorney was confronted by the point that Trump had repeatedly lied to the press and the public about his knowledge of issues around the Russia investigation, he had a ready answer: “The President's not under oath.“
That’s true enough—though in the past, people seem to have thought that public officials continually lying on important topics was a point of concern. But that new line has already received a heavy workout in court. And it’s about to get tested even more. Because Trump didn’t just send Felix Sater and Michael Cohen off to negotiate a real estate deal in Moscow, he put his signature on the agreement.
A newly obtained document shows President Donald Trump signed a letter of intent to move forward with negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia, despite his attorney Rudy Giuliani claiming on Sunday the document was never signed.
Boy. It’s a good thing that Rudy Giuliani wasn’t under oath when he said that. And Trump didn’t just sign that letter of intent, he signed it four months into his presidential campaign. At a time when what he was telling everyone was just a little bit different. And Trump continued to insist that he has had no contact with Russia, even as more and more information about the Moscow Project emerged.
Trump: Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven’t made a phone call to Russia in years. Don’t speak to people from Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.
That statement was made in 2017 … not quite two years after the date of Trump’s signature on that letter of intent to cooperate in building a skyscraper in Moscow. Which … hey, didn’t Trump take some kind of oath? At that thing. The one he said was attended by more people than anything ever.