Donald Trumpâs campaign threat to appoint a special prosecutor to go after Hillary Clinton may still be in play, according to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a vice chairman on Trumpâs presidential transition team.
âThatâs a tough one, George, it really is,â Giuliani told ABCâs George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. âAs a lawyer, I hate to use the âon the one hand, but the other,â but on the one hand, you donât want to disrupt the nation with what might look like a vindictive prosecution, even though it might not be. On the other hand, you want equal justice under the law, and if she has violated the law â you know, the FBI never completed the [Clinton] Foundation investigation. Thatâs, as far as I know, thatâs still an ongoing investigation. They completed the email investigation, but not the Foundation investigation.â
Giuliani said that would ultimately be a decision for the next attorney general â a position that he didnât rule out vying for himself.
âExactly what you do with that, I guess the next attorney general is going to have to figure that out. I donât know if that will be me or not, but the next attorney general would have to figure that out,â he said, before suggesting the wisest move might be to pass the matter off to an independent counsel, or to table it altogether.
âAnd Iâm going to make a guess, not a definitive statement, I would think if you had to make a decision like that, youâd give it â youâd give that to an independent counsel. You wouldnât make it as the appointee of the new president. We have a lot of precedence for that; weâve done that in the past,â Giuliani said. âOr maybe that you want to sort of put that behind you. I donât know, thatâs a tough decision.â
In an interview on CBSâs â60 Minutesâ Sunday, Trump himself did not rule it out either.
âIâll tell you what Iâm going to do, Iâm going to think about it,â he said, adding that he âwill give you a very, very good and definitive answer the next time we do â60 Minutesâ together.â But he said of the Clintons: âI donât want to hurt them. Theyâre good people.â
Other GOP officials sounded less interested in continuing to go after Clinton. Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) said his agenda doesnât involve an investigation of Clinton. âI leave that portion to law enforcement,â he told âFox News Sunday.â
Giuliani also addressed Trumpâs business holdings, advising the president-elect to put them into a blind trust.
âFor the good of the country, and the fact you donât want a question coming up every time thereâs a decision made, he should basically take himself out of it, and just be a passive participant in the sense that he has no decision-making, no involvement,â he said.
Trump had floated the idea of letting his children oversee his businesses, which wouldnât qualify as a blind trust.
But in a separate appearance Sunday on CNN, Giuliani argued that such a setup wouldnât be a conflict of interest.
âFirst of all, you realize that those laws donât apply to the president, right?â he told CNNâs Jake Tapper. âThe president doesnât have to have a blind trust. For some reason when the law was written, the president was exempt. I think heâs in a very unusual situation. He would basically put his children out of work and theyâd have to go start a whole new business.â
This article has been updated to include Trumpâs â60 Minutesâ appearance.