Rudy Giuliani leaves open the possibility there may have been collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia

Screenshot via CNN

Rudy Giuliani speaks to CNN's Chris Cuomo in an interview on January 16, 2019.

• Rudy Giuliani left open the possibility that aides who worked on President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign could have colluded with Russian operatives, a matter now being investigated by the special counsel Robert Mueller.
• Giuliani has repeatedly insisted that Trump himself did not collude with the Russians, but said he could not speak for anyone else on the campaign.
• "I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign ... I have not," Giuliani said in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night.
• Trump has also claimed he never colluded with Russia, but his statements and actions - both as a candidate and as president have been scrutinized as part of Mueller's investigation.

Rudy Giuliani left open the possibility that aides who worked on President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign could have colluded with Russian operatives, a matter now being investigated by the special counsel Robert Mueller's office.

"I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign ... I have not," Giuliani said in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night.

Giuliani has repeatedly insisted that Trump himself did not collude with the Russians, but said he could not speak for anyone else on the campaign. Trump has also claimed he never colluded with Russia, frequently declaring as much in tweets and during public appearances.

But his statements and actions, both as a candidate and as president, are reportedly being scrutinized as part of Mueller's investigation. Trump's direct appeal to Russia on July 27, 2016, in which he urged the Kremlin to find Hillary Clinton's emails is one example, as is his behavior with the Russian delegation that visited the Oval Office in May 2017, days after the he fired FBI Director James Comey.

A report from The Washington Post published shortly after the meeting, which cited current and former US officials, said Trump revealed classified information to the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and then-Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. The Post's reporting indicated Trump's disclosures "jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State."

The New York Times last week reported the FBI previously opened investigations on Trump out of concern he might have been personally compromised by Russia or knowingly working as a Russian agent. The president rejected that assertion on Tuesday.