Giuliani complicates the Trump-Moscow story for the president

First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

Jan. 21, 2019, 8:47 AM EST

By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann

WASHINGTON — On a weekend when President Trump and his legal team should have been on the offensive regarding that disputed BuzzFeed article — more on it below — Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani only complicated the Trump-Moscow story for the president.

First, Giuliani said on “Meet the Press” yesterday that Team Trump had conversations about the Trump Tower Moscow project throughout 2016 – not through January 2016, as former Trump fixer Michael Cohen had originally testified to Congress.

“The conversations lasted throughout parts of 2016. The president is not sure exactly when they ended. I would say Michael Cohen would have a much better recollection of it than the president.”

When one us of pressed him on what he meant by “throughout 2016, Giuliani added, “Could be up to as far as October, November. Our answers cover until the election.”

The New York Times explains why Giuliani’s answer is significant. “The new timetable means that Mr. Trump was seeking a deal at the time he was calling for an end to economic sanctions against Russia imposed by the Obama administration. He was seeking a deal when he gave interviews questioning the legitimacy of NATO, a favorite talking point of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. And he was seeking a deal when, in July 2016, he called on Russia to release hacked Democratic emails that Mr. Putin’s government was rumored at the time to have stolen.”

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