Rudy Giuliani's statements came days after a leaked report that Michael Cohen is prepared to tell federal investigators that President Trump, contrary to his public claims, had knowledge of and even approved the June 9 meeting. | Alex Wong/Getty Images ‘Never happened’: Giuliani walks back confusing claim of secret Trump Tower meeting

In a day of confusing statements, President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani first startled observers with a public claim of a previously unknown meeting involving top Trump associates and Kremlin-linked Russians — then recanted the claim and said the meeting "never happened."

During a nearly 45-minute interview on CNN at 8 a.m., Giuliani said Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen, who appears to have turned on his former boss, claims that top Trump officials met at Trump Tower to plan for a scheduled June 9, 2016 meeting days later with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer promising dirt on Trump's campaign rival, Hillary Clinton.


In a subsequent interview four hours later — and after some Democrats said the earlier meeting amounted to new evidence of calculated collusion with Russia — Giuliani denied it ever took place, saying he was merely repeating a claim that multiple reporters had been asking him about.

It was the latest of several instances in which Giuliani — a former New York City mayor, federal prosecutor and presidential candidate — seemed to confuse or distort key facts about the Russia investigation and related legal headaches for his presidential client.

Giuliani told CNN the earlier meeting happened two days before the well-publicized June 9 Trump Tower meeting, and allegedly involved Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and another individual Giuliani could not remember. Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort all attended the undisputed June 9 meeting, which — after shifting accounts from the White House about its purpose — they have said came to nothing.

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Giuliani mentioned the meeting twice during his CNN interview, first saying that Cohen leaked that this meeting took place. He then mentioned that it was Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, who had revealed the gathering had occurred.

The confused statements came days after a leaked report that Cohen is prepared to tell federal investigators that Trump, contrary to his public claims, had knowledge of and even approved the June 9 meeting with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. That meeting was arranged between Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., and Emin Agalarov, the pop singer and son of a Russian billionaire who had joined the elder Trump in co-hosting the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.

Asked by CNN how he could be sure that Trump didn't have advance knowledge about the June 9 meeting, Giuliani said, "Nobody can be sure of anything."

He then described an additional meeting to prove that Cohen and Davis could not be trusted.

"Lanny Davis added there was a meeting two days before, the meeting took place with Donald Jr., Jared, Manafort and two others, Gates and one other person."

Giuliani was then asked whether the meeting was real.

"That's a real meeting on another provable subject in which he would not (inaudible)," he replied.

Around noon, Giuliani called into Fox News' "Outnumbered" to clarify his statement, saying only that reporters had asked him about the separate meeting.

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

He added that Cohen didn't say whether the president knew about it.

"I am telling you the meeting didn't take place, never happened," Giuliani said.

More than once since he became Trump's counsel, Giuliani has raised more questions while trying to defend Trump and his personal dealings.

Giuliani said in May said that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for a sum of money he allegedly paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. But Giuliani quickly walked back that statement as well.