Special counsel Robert Mueller told President Trump’s legal team that he cannot indict a sitting president, according to Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s attorneys.
“All they get to do is write a report,” Giuliani told CNN Wednesday. “They can’t indict. At least they acknowledged that to us after some battling, they acknowledged that to us.”
“This case is essentially over. They’re just in denial,” Giuliani added, per Fox News.
The policy of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel since 1973 has been that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted or indicted, a position adopted during former President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.
The policy was then restated following the Monica Lewinsky scandal during the Clinton administration through a DOJ memo issued in 2000.
Legal experts have debated whether Mueller can challenge the department’s stance if investigators find criminal evidence against Trump.
Regardless, the House of Representatives can still pursue articles of impeachment against Trump after it receives referrals or recommendations from the special counsel.
Thursday marks one year since Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Giuliani told CNN that Trump’s legal team has yet to decide whether to grant Mueller a sit-down interview with the president as part of his inquiry.
He told Fox News the decision has been delayed because the special counsel has not responded to five information requests from Trump’s lawyers.
