Speaking of liars on TV

The special counsel plans to finish by Sept. 1 its investigation into whether President Trump obstructed the Russia inquiry, according to the president’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, who said on Sunday that waiting any longer would risk improperly influencing voters in the midterm elections in November.

  NYT

So we believe what Rudy says now?

A mere few days ago we were told that Rudy says he was told by Mueller's team that the President couldn't be indicted, and the only option Mueller has is to write a report.

Mr. Giuliani’s comments were an apparent attempt to publicly pressure Mr. Mueller amid their interview negotiations. He urged that the investigation be wrapped up as soon as possible, pointing as a cautionary tale to the revelation by the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey in the last days of the 2016 presidential race that he was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

[...]

“You don’t want another repeat of the 2016 election where you get contrary reports at the end and you don’t know how it affected the election,” Mr. Giuliani said.

Mr. Giuliani is taking advantage of the fact that the Mueller team doesn't leak and doesn't respond to questions about the case, so he can put words in their mouths with impunity.

The obstruction examination is one piece of Mr. Mueller’s broader inquiry, a counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Counterintelligence investigations are used to gather information quietly about the activities of foreign powers and their agents — sometimes for years — and can result in criminal charges.

I would expect "years" for this investigation to wrap up. Just look at the complexity and how many people and countries are involved that we know about. Plus, the underlying Russia collusion goes back years to Trump's first interest in running for president in the late 80s. His involvement with the Russian mob in money laundering goes back even further.

“We want the concentration of this to be on Comey versus the president’s credibility, and I think we win that and people get that,” Mr. Giuliani said.

Nothing like announcing your manipulative strategy on national TV, but I think Rudy is misreading the public's opinion about who is the more credible of the two men.

Mr. Giuliani said that an interview would be a distraction for the president and that the amount of preparation required meant that the president could not sit for questioning until after the scheduled summit meeting between Mr. Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, on June 12 in Singapore. Based on that schedule, Mr. Giuliani said, the president could be questioned around Independence Day.

Obviously, if they got through only two questions in four hours the last time they tried to prep the fool for something, it will take at least until June 12 to prepare Trump for the summit. Then again, Kim might just be calling the whole thing off.

So they figure about three weeks for him to be prepped for an interview with Mueller? I think they're being optimistic if they do.

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

UPDATE 5/24:

Trump cancelled the summit.