Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s attorney, claimed Sunday he could “produce 20 witnesses“ to testify that hush money payments to women ahead of the 2016 election were intended to protect then-candidate Trump’s family — not purely to influence the outcome of the race.

“I can produce an enormous number of witnesses,” the former New York mayor told journalist George Stephanopoulos during an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” adding: “I can produce 20 witnesses to tell you what he was concerned about.”


Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced last week to three years in prison on tax and fraud charges and for lying to Congress and a pair of campaign finance violations stemming from the payments, which prosecutors in the Southern District of New York allege Trump directed his ex-fixer to make.

The president chimed in on Twitter shortly after Giuliani’s appearance, lashing out at the FBI over the bureau’s April raid on Cohen's office and residence. That search led to law enforcement officials' seizure of a tape Cohen made of a conversation with Trump about payments to a former Playboy model two months before the 2016 election.

“Remember, Michael Cohen only became a ‘Rat’ after the FBI did something which was absolutely unthinkable & unheard of until the Witch Hunt was illegally started,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “They BROKE INTO AN ATTORNEY’S OFFICE! Why didn’t they break into the DNC to get the Server, or Crooked’s office?”

Giuliani, who served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in the 1980s, said Sunday that prosecutors had no corroborating evidence for Cohen’s claims that the payments were meant to preserve Trump’s candidacy, and he continued to disparage the man long considered to be the president’s top loyalist.


“Pathetic. The man is pathetic,” Giuliani said. “Unless you're God, this man, you will never know what the truth is.”

Of the SDNY office, Giuliani remarked: “I ran that office. I know what they do.”

Giuliani’s comments echoed other defenses from the president’s allies, who contend that the payments were not illegal because they were, at least in part, a private matter meant to shield Trump's family from emotional distress.

“See what we’re talking about? It’s not a crime. It’s not a crime,” Giuliani insisted.


“It has to be for the sole purpose. If there's another purpose, it’s no longer a campaign contribution if there‘s a personal purpose,” he said. “Now think about this — suppose he tried to use his campaign funds to pay off Stormy Daniels. It would be totally illegal. If it's not a campaign expense, it can’t be a campaign contribution. These are not campaign contributions.”