'Wait, What Tapes…?' Rudy Giuliani Reveals He's Heard Taped Evidence in Trump-Russia Investigation

Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani has given yet another interview in which he appears to make contradictory remarks regarding the president and his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

Giuliani, who has made recent statements relating to the special counsel's Russia investigation that he has had to clarify or walk back, appears to have inadvertently revealed that he listened to conversations between Trump and Cohen discussing building a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Related: MSNBC panel savages Rudy Giuliani: "Worst lawyer ever," "he should be disbarred"

Speaking to The New Yorker, Giuliani was asked for his opinion is on a disputed BuzzFeed report that claimed Trump asked Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow project in order to shield his involvement in it.

"I guess the BuzzFeed story—I don't remember what it said about Cohen—but it said there was corroboration that the president talked to Cohen and told him to lie about, I guess it was, the Moscow proposal," Giuliani said. "There are no tapes, there are no texts, there is no corroboration that the president told him to lie.

"I can tell you, from the moment I read the story, I knew the story was false. Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the emails, and I knew none existed," he added.

The New Yorker then asked, "Wait, what tapes have you gone through?" Giuliani replied: "I shouldn't have said tapes. They alleged there were texts and emails that corroborated that Cohen was saying the president told him to lie. There were no texts, there were no e-mails, and the president never told him to lie."

The lawyer then clarified that there are no tapes before immediately adding, "Well, I have listened to tapes, but none of them concern this."

Elsewhere in the interview, Giuliani expressed concern that being the president's lawyer will mean that his gravestone will one day read: "Rudy Giuliani: He lied for Trump."

"Somehow, I don't think that will be it. But, if it is, so what do I care? I'll be dead," he added.

The interview with The New Yorker was published the same day that Giuliani had to clarify other comments he has made regarding Trump and Cohen about plans for the Moscow project.

Speaking to NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Giuliani said that conversations between Trump and Cohen about the tower may have continued "up to as far as October, November," or right up until the 2016 presidential election—a timeline that extends beyond what the president has publicly said.

In a follow-up statement, Giuliani said his comments were "hypothetical" and did not represent the "actual timing or circumstances of any discussions."

Giuliani also had to explain comments he made in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo the previous week, in which he appeared to suggest that Trump's campaign may have colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential race.

"I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or people in the campaign," Giuliani said on Cuomo Prime Time. "I said the president of the United States."

In yet another statement made to try to clarify what he said, Giuliani explained that there was no collusion by Trump "in any way, shape or form" and that he had "no knowledge of any collusion by any of the thousands of people who worked on the campaign."

Update: This article has been updated to include additional quotes from the interview.

Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani speaks to the media during White House Sports and Fitness Day on May 30, 2018. The president's lawyer has apparently suggested there are tapes of Donald Trump discussing Russian projects with his former... Alex Wong/Getty Images

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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more

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