Giuliani stirs the muddied the waters with a clarification

Rudy Giuliani released a statement Friday intended to clarify his earlier remarks that President Trump repaid his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

[...]

Giuliani repeated that there was no campaign finance violation from the payment, though in an interview with "Fox & Friends" on Thursday he had acknowledged Cohen made the payment because Daniels was alleging a 2006 affair with Trump in the heat of 2016 presidential race.

  The Hill

I have no doubts Giuliani is working with and at Trump's behest on everything he says. Trump himself fashions whatever "strategy" exists. Apparently, the most important thing in his mind - at this moment - is claiming there was no campaign finance violation.

Trump himself arranged his phone interview with Fox & Friends, and in it, he admitted Cohen fixed the Stormy Daniels "deal" for him. And he tweeted after Giuliani's disastrous appearance on Fox that he had indeed reimbursed Cohen, using a fake retainer agreement. Fraud? Sad!

"First: There is no campaign violation. The payment was made to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the President's family. It would have been done in any event, whether he was a candidate or not," Giuliani said in the statement, obtained by ABC News.

That's real helpful.

Giuliani's remarks to Hannity also raised headlines because it had previously not been disclosed that Trump had repaid Cohen.

[...]

Giuliani said his remarks reflected his understanding of what happened, not his understanding of what Trump knew about the payment.

How does that work? What happened is Trump repaid Cohen, but maybe Trump didn't know he did?

"Second: My references to timing were not describing my understanding of the President's knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters," he said in the statement.

Daniels' attorney has since indicated that there is "extensive" proof in the form of conversations between Cohen and Daniels' attorney at the time of the deal indicating the timing was of utmost importance. I guess we'll pretend Trump didn't know what Cohen was doing.

"Third: It is undisputed that the President's dismissal of former Director Comey — an inferior executive officer — was clearly within his Article II power," Giuliani said. "Recent revelations about former Director Comey further confirm the wisdom of the President's decision, which was plainly in the best interests of our nation."

Appropo of nothing. We all know the president had the right to fire Comey. The question for Mueller is the reason for doing it - did it amount to obstruction of justice?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: