Giuliani Reveals New ‘Russia Strategy’ Meeting Prior To Trump Tower Meeting, Only To Walk Back Claim

In a series of conflicting interviews, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani revealed that Trump officials held a strategy meeting prior to the infamous Trump Tower meeting, only to deny the claim later that day.

On Tuesday, Giuliani told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota that there was another meeting two days prior to the 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and another individual Giuliani could not remember met to discuss their strategy for the upcoming June 9 meeting with various Russian individuals linked to the Kremlin. The latter meeting was previously under scrutiny as emails revealed that part of the meeting’s premise was to discuss supposed dirt Russian officials uncovered about the Clinton campaign.

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Trump has since denied having an prior knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting and the administration has tried to downplay the meeting as uneventful and inconclusive. The meeting has once again received national attention after Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen’s recent assertion that Trump did, in fact, know about the meeting in advance and even approved it.

During the interview, Giuliani noted that “Lanny Davis [Michael Cohen’s lawyer] added there was a meeting two days before.” Giuliani was then asked whether the meeting was real.

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“That’s a real meeting on another provable subject in which [Trump] did not participate,” he replied.

The news came as a shock to many viewers as this was the first time any information concerning a second meeting was released. Giuliani later attempted to clarify his comments in a call to Fox News. He claimed that the second meeting he had mentioned just hours before “didn’t take place, never happened.” He also noted that even if it did happen, Trump was not in attendance. When discussing why he brought up the second meeting when it wasn’t even in the news, Giuliani said he wanted to get ahead of the story. He explained that two reporters had told him of the news in advance and he was trying to shut it down.

“All I have are two reporters telling me Cohen told them there was a meeting three days before with the group of people that I said and that they discussed the Russia meeting and that the president was not there,” Giuliani said.

The possibility of a second meeting could be dangerous for Trump’s team. A strategy meeting would suggest that the Trump Tower meeting was not as insignificant as Trump’s campaign staff has previously claimed, once again raising questions about possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. 

Check out a clip of the Giuliani’s interview below, courtesy of CNN: