Trump lawyer shrugs off Roger Stone’s meeting with Russian

Donald Trump's lawyer said on Sunday he "doubted" the president knew about a newly reported May 2016 meeting between sometime adviser Roger Stone and a Russian offering damaging information about Hillary Clinton, then Mr Trump's rival for the White House

"I doubt it," Rudy Giuliani told CNN's State of the Union. "I certainly didn't know about it. It's news to me, I just read it here in the Washington Post."

The Post reported the meeting on Sunday. It named the Russian as Harry Greenberg, a resident of Florida, and said he demanded $2 million for the purported information.

Mr Stone, a Republican operative since the Nixon era who at the time of the meeting was not a formal member of the Trump campaign, had denied meeting any Russians in connection with the election. He told the Post he rejected the offer, and told Mr Greenberg: "You don't understand Donald Trump. He doesn't pay for anything."

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The Post also reported text messages between Mr Stone and Michael Caputo, then a Trump communications official, who arranged the meeting.

“How crazy is the Russian?” Mr Caputo wrote.

"Noting that Greenberg wanted 'big' money," the Post reported, "Stone replied 'waste of time'."

Mr Greenberg described to the Post details of the meeting and conversation which were similar to those provided by Mr Stone.

Investigators

Mr Caputo told the paper he has been asked about the meeting by investigators working for Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian election interference and alleged collusion between Trump aides and Moscow. Mr Stone has said he expected Mr Mueller to indict him in order to "silence" him.

On CBS's Face the Nation, Mr Giuliani said: "Roger Stone met - apparently met with them, I don't know. I haven't talked to Roger. He's never talked to the president about it. So where's the collusion? And he said it was a waste of time. So, yeah, sure there was contact as there was in that meeting. But that meeting led to nothing. This led to nothing. So if anything it's proof there was no collusion."

Guardian News and Media 2018