Caroline Kelly at CNN:
Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that he never denied President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign, only that the President himself was not involved in collusion.
In an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on "Cuomo Prime Time," Giuliani, a former New York mayor and Trump's attorney, said he doesn't know if other people in the campaign, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, were working with the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential race.
"I never said there was no collusion between the campaign, or people in the campaign," Giuliani said.
He added, "I said the President of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the President of the United States committed the only crime you can commit here, conspiring with the Russians to hack the DNC."At WP, Aaron Blake lists the evolving non-denial denials.
It's another remarkable statement from Giuliani, given that the President and his supporters have repeatedly denied any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. A person familiar with the matter told CNN last week that Manafort, while serving as Trump's campaign chairman, tried to send internal polling data from the Trump campaign with two Kremlin-supporting Ukrainian oligarchs through
Trump team's collusion denials:— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) January 17, 2019
1) No contact
3) Contacts not *planned*
4) Okay planned, but not re: campaign
5) Okay, but not meaningful or used
6) Collusion is not a crime
7) Can't collude if you don't know Putin
8) Repeat 6
9) Maybe *someone* colludedhttps://t.co/oNYCsymF2A
