Rudy Giuliani is calling for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election to be suspended following the release of a Justice Department's inspector general's report on the FBI's actions during the campaign.
The sweeping, 500-page report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz, released Thursday declares anti-Donald Trump text messages exchanged between FBI agent Peter Strzok – who was working on both the Trump-Russia probe and the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server – and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page "cast a cloud" over the bureau's actions.
Although, the report found no evidence that their views "directly affected" investigative decisions. Strzok was removed from Mueller's staff after other anti-Trump text messages were revealed.
But that did not stop Giuliani, the latest member of the president's legal team dealing with Mueller's ongoing probe, from declaring in a Fox News interview that it is time to "investigate the investigators."
"Let's take a halt to the Mueller investigation," the former mayor of New York said on Friday morning. "Let's stop that and get rid of all the agents doing the Mueller investigation."
Giuliani made similar remarks during an appearance on Sean Hannity's Fox News show – a favorite of President Donald Trump's – an evening prior.
"I believe that [Deputy Attorney General] Rod Rosenstein and [Attorney General] Jeff Sessions have a chance to redeem themselves – and that chance comes about tomorrow," Giuliani declared. "It doesn't go beyond tomorrow."
"Tomorrow, Mueller should be suspended and honest people should be brought in – impartial people to investigate these people like Strzok," he added.
It remains unclear what exactly Giuliani meant by "tomorrow," and he did not elaborate.
The lawyer also told Hannity that Strzok should be fired and "in jail by the end of next week."
"Even for the present director of the FBI to have him there tomorrow would be disgraceful," Giuliani said. "Every FBI agent should demand that that man be fired."
Giuliani told Hannity that Sessions – a former Trump campaign surrogate who has recused himself from the Russia probe after failing to disclose multiple meetings with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. – "should now step up big time to save his department."
He also argued that Sessions should terminate the Russia investigation – which he referred to as the "phony Trump investigation" – and bring in "honest" FBI agents who, in his opinion, could be relied to investigate Strzok, Page and former FBI Director James Comey.
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