President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE and his team are intensifying their attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE’s Russia probe as the investigation enters its second year.

Rudy Giuliani told The Hill on Thursday — one year to the day since Mueller was appointed — that “it is an absolute requirement that the investigation and the investigators are put under scrutiny.”

Giuliani, the former Republican mayor of New York City who joined the president’s outside legal team last month, highlighted speculation that has been sweeping conservative circles — fanned by the president himself — that the FBI may have had a spy inside the 2016 Trump campaign.

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“If it is true that they put a spy or two inside the Trump campaign, it is not different from Watergate, except it is Democrats doing it to Republicans, rather than Republicans doing it to Democrats,” Giuliani told The Hill.

Giuliani cited a New York Times story from Wednesday as support for this contention. That story did not say there was a spy inside the campaign but rather that a government informant had met with two Trump campaign aides, Carter Page and George PapadopoulosGeorge Demetrios PapadopoulosTale of two FBI cases: Clinton got warned, Trump got investigated Trump says he would consider pardons for those implicated in Mueller investigation New FBI document confirms the Trump campaign was investigated without justification MORE.

Nevertheless, Giuliani insisted, “I said a long time ago, the only crimes were committed by the investigators rather than the president. So far, everything I have seen vindicates that opinion.”



Trump loyalists might argue that the investigation is a “witch hunt,” as the president himself claimed yet again on Twitter on Thursday morning.

Yet that ignores five guilty pleas that have come out of the investigation, including from former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign official Richard Gates and Papadopoulos.

It also glosses over the raft of charges against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort Paul John ManafortOur Constitution is under attack by Attorney General William Barr Bannon trial date set in alleged border wall scam Conspicuous by their absence from the Republican Convention MORE; the revelation that Trump had repaid attorney Michael Cohen for payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, contrary to his earlier protestations; the indictment of 13 Russians for election interference; and the broader questions that are still being investigated, including whether Trump obstructed justice in his firing of FBI Director James Comey James Brien ComeyDemocrats fear Russia interference could spoil bid to retake Senate Book: FBI sex crimes investigator helped trigger October 2016 public probe of Clinton emails Trump jabs at FBI director over testimony on Russia, antifa MORE in May 2017.

Some Democrats, including Reps. Maxine Waters Maxine Moore WatersPowell, Mnuchin stress limits of current emergency lending programs Pelosi: House will stay in session until agreement is reached on coronavirus relief Omar invokes father's death from coronavirus in reaction to Woodward book MORE (Calif.) and Al Green Alexander (Al) N. GreenThe Memo: Trump's race tactics fall flat Trump administration ending support for 7 Texas testing sites as coronavirus cases spike The Hill's Coronavirus Report: Miami mayor worries about suicide and domestic violence rise; Trump-governor debate intensifies MORE (Texas), have called for Trump’s impeachment. Party leaders have so far proven resistant to those calls, but few people beyond Trump’s core supporters doubt that the Mueller probe has done the president serious damage.

“It has obviously been an enormous distraction for the administration,” said Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University. “Whatever the amount of political capital [he had], it has been diminished.”

Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf said that the probe had created problems for Trump already and was likely “a long way from a conclusion.”

Sheinkopf, himself a New Yorker, also said of Giuliani that “his style, which is quite New York — bombastic, abrasive and glib — is not playing well in the rest of the nation. It’s too New York. That has nothing to do with his own abilities. It has everything to do with the cultural clash.”

Still, the president himself is keeping all guns blazing.

His Thursday morning tweets sarcastically heralded the beginning of “the second year of the greatest Witch Hunt in American History.” A follow-up tweet insisted that the probe was “disgusting, illegal and unwarranted.”

Some supporters of the president acknowledge there is a question about whether his aggressive posture toward the probe has helped or hurt him. But they say they understand his frustration.

“Unfortunately [his approach] is one he sees as necessary,” said Barry Bennett, a senior adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign. “He is sitting there every day being accused of treason with no evidence. … He wants to fight back and I cannot fault him for that. I don’t know it is always the right strategy, but I understand why he feels that way.”

There are also some signs that the president’s attacks on Mueller, often amplified by political and media allies, are having an effect. A CBS News poll earlier this month indicated that 53 percent of adults believed the Russia probe was “politically motivated,” whereas just 44 percent believed it was “justified.”

The last time the news organization polled on the same question, in December 2017, opinion was split more evenly between those two options, with 48 percent saying it was politically motivated and 46 percent saying it was justified.

But news has been breaking around the Russia allegations, the Mueller probe and the related investigation into Cohen on a daily basis of late — something that further deepens the political peril for Trump.

On Wednesday alone, newly released documents from the Senate Judiciary Committee raised new questions about a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower attended by a Russian lawyer as well as Donald Trump Jr. Don John Trump'Tiger King' star Joe Exotic requests pardon from Trump: 'Be my hero please' Zaid Jilani discusses Trump's move to cancel racial sensitivity training at federal agencies Trump International Hotel in Vancouver closes permanently MORE, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner Jared Corey KushnerAbraham Accords: New hope for peace in Middle East Tenants in Kushner building file lawsuit alleging dangerous living conditions Trump hosts Israel, UAE, Bahrain for historic signing MORE and Manafort.

The Senate Intelligence Committee said it agreed with an earlier assessment by the intelligence community that Russian President Vladimir Putin had sought to help Trump in the 2016 election.

The same day, Giuliani told multiple outlets that Mueller’s team had agreed they could not indict a sitting president.

A Reuters report on Thursday indicated that Manafort’s former son-in-law was cooperating with investigators, further complicating the former campaign chairman’s legal defense.

The biggest immediate question around the probe is whether Trump will consent to a voluntary interview with Mueller’s team. He and his allies have sent contradictory signals on that issue, though some in his circle say privately that they don’t believe he will ever consent to an interview.

Giuliani told The Hill that a decision on the interview was still “kind of premature.”

“There are things in favor and things against — probably right now, more things against,” he added. “We still have an open mind. If we can get assurance of a global resolution, the president might do it for the benefit of the country.”

Asked to define a “global resolution,” the former mayor replied: “That means the president’s out.”

The Memo is reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.