On CNN’s New Day, anchor Alisyn Camerota grilled Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Monday, and in particular over the President Trump‘s tweets that Robert Mueller has an apparent or supposed “conflict of interest” due to some mysterious prior business interaction with the President.

CNN showed images of the tweets from Trump regarding the assertion and jumped right in, asking “what’s he referring to?”

“He’s referring to a dispute which I imagine Mueller — I imagine he disclosed it to Rosenstein when he appointed him because it would involve something that actually wasn’t settled even to this day. But that’s up to the president and Mueller to describe, it’s not part of my legal representation.”

They went back and forth a bit about whether the details would be released, and Giuliani, who later scoffed the idea of reviewing Trump tweets, said that it was only fair since Trump is being “beaten up” by all kinds of “anonymous tweets” to say “you explain it Mueller, stand up and be a man.”

Camerota then asked how the president could make the claim and leave it unsupported, and Giuliani said it was up to Mueller to explain it, because “he has the conflict, not the president.”

“What’s the conflict?” she asked.

“I can’t tell you,” he said again. “I’m not sure I know exactly what the conflict is. I have got a good idea what it is. It’s one that would have kept me out of the investigation.”

Camerota asked, “what does that mean?”

He answered with a segue. “What it means is that I would have had had a personal interest, a personal dispute with the president of the United States before the investigation that really precluded me from being– maybe it explains why he hired 13 Democrats and why he hired a guy who donated thirty-six thousand–”

Camerota interrupted to say that Mueller investigators also donated to Republicans, and Giuliani said no they didn’t and they argued back and forth over that, before Camerota returned to the conflict.

“Are you saying that the business conflict that Mueller and President Trump had — is that about his golf course?”

“I’m not going to go any further, you’re not gonna–” said Giuliani, pausing for effect.

“Is that what you think?” Camerota clarified.

“It is up to the president to describe it in further detail if he elects to do so, he said. “Or if Mueller would like to come out and explain why it’s not a conflict, I invite Bob to do it.”

“We waived the privilege when the whole thing came out because we’re anxious to have him get the truth. So let’s see if Mueller has that same impulse,” he added.

Camerota asked a very important follow-up question. “Why didn’t President Trump bring this up 14 months ago when Mueller was appointed?”

“Because I think he was hoping that maybe it had passed Mueller by, maybe he had gotten over it,” said Giuliani before adding that he thinks obviously Mueller hasn’t, given the extent of the investigation.

The clear point that he is making, which is the point Trump tweeted, is not merely that Mueller has a conflict on paper, but that this supposed conflict represents a grudge on Mueller’s behalf, fueling his vendetta against Trump, causing him to choose a group of angry Democrat investigators, and dragging the investigation out in hopes of getting back at Trump for the conflict which neither Trump nor Giuliani will elaborate on or explain.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.

[Featured image via screengrab]

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