Giuliani says Trump isn’t considering post-Mueller pardons, rips ‘stupid’ special counsel over ‘cheap shot’ refusal to exonerate President

Rudy Giuliani on Sunday evening walked back a full-throated suggestion that President Trump may pardon associates caught up in the Russia investigation, telling the Daily News it’s “not going to happen.”

Speaking over the phone, the former New York mayor and current personal attorney to the President broke out laughing several times as he belittled Robert Mueller’s “stupid” investigation while affirming there’s no need for Trump to issue pardons now that the special counsel inquiry has come to an end.

“No one should expect a pardon,” Giuliani said. “(Trump) is not focused on that and it’s not going to happen.”

Giuliani’s no pardon pledge poses a drastic departure from comments he made to The News as Mueller’s investigation was heating up last summer.

“When the whole thing is over, things might get cleaned up with some presidential pardons,” Giuliani said on June 15 after a federal judge had ordered ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to await trial in jail. Manafort has since been sentenced to nearly eight years in prison for a laundry list of crimes that Mueller uncovered.

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In addition to Manafort, Mueller indicted Trump’s longtime confidant Roger Stone, his ex-personal attorney Michael Cohen, his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, his former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates and his former campaign aide George Papadopoulos.

In the Sunday conversation, Giuliani was more upbeat, saying he will soon hand out cigars to reporters in light of Mueller’s probe wrapping up without charging the Trump campaign with conspiring in Russia’s attack on the 2016 election.

However, Giuliani took issue with Mueller’s refusal to exonerate Trump of obstruction.

“The best they could do was a cheap little shot like that,” Giuliani said. “They don’t know what obstruction is.”

While Mueller’s full report has yet to see the light of day, Attorney General William Barr released what he called a four-page summary of the special counsel’s “principal conclusions.” In the summary, Barr quoted Mueller as stating of obstruction, “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

“His theory is stupid. His theory is ridiculous,” Giuliani said Sunday of Mueller’s non-conclusive statement on obstruction, contending the President can’t commit obstruction since he’s shielded by executive privileges.

Without divulging any details, Barr concluded less than 48 hours after Mueller’s report was submitted to the Justice Department that the special counsel’s evidence on obstruction was “not sufficient” to warrant charges against the President.

Mueller spent 22 months mulling over the obstruction question, but still concluded his investigation without arriving at an answer.

Giuliani said Barr had been too nice to Mueller’s team of investigators.

“He should have sent them back to law school,” Giuliani said. “It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Giuliani’s change of heart on pardons comes as Democrats have expressed concern about the President using his pardon power to undo Mueller’s work.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced legislation earlier this month preventing Trump from issuing pardons for his "own personal benefit or to obstruct justice."

“The rule of law requires that a President use the pardon power only for reasons separate from his own criminal exposure,” Schiff said in a statement announcing the legislation on March 7.

Even though Mueller’s investigation is finally over, the partisan divide in Congress does not appear likely to bridge any time soon, with Republicans demanding investigations into the FBI’s handling of the initial Trump campaign probe and Democrats pushing for the release of the full special counsel report.