Donald Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows to blame special counsel Robert Mueller's team for trying to catch the president in a lie.
"We are not going to sit him down if this is a trip for perjury," Giuliani told Fox News. "And until we're convinced of that, if they don't show us these documents, we're just going to have to say no."
The documents he referenced are 1.2 million documents outlining every piece and part of the investigation. Essentially, Giuliani is demanding to see the entire case Mueller has before he'll agree to anything. The legal team wants the documents, even if Mueller has no intention of using them in his case.
"Let me emphasize, he wants to explain that he did nothing wrong," he continued. "It's us, the lawyers, who have to convince him that this is a trap."
The idea that something is a "perjury trap" is a term Trump's legal team has been throwing around for weeks, claiming that Mueller simply wants to set Trump up to lie. The so-called "perjury trap" is actually nothing more than asking Trump questions and ensuring he can answer truthfully.
Former New York Assistant District Attorney Steven Cash explained that it isn't unusual for defense attorneys to ask for any and all information at all stages of an investigation. Whether the investigators or the grand jury intends to turn them over, however, remains to be seen. He doesn't anticipate the federal investigators and prosecutors turning anything over any time soon.
"I think one of the problems is that we keep talking about a 'perjury trap,'" he continued. "Well, a perjury trap is not what most people think it is, or what it is on 'Law & Order' when someone who may lie ends up in a position in which they do lie. It's a very well-defined legal concept and it requires that the prosecutors asking the questions are not really asking that question. They don't really want to know the answer. They just want to get you to lie."
He explained that in his expert opinion and observation "I don't think there's any evidence that that's what's going on here."
"I appreciate why Mayor Giuliani, as an aggressive attorney, says, 'I want to see this, I want to see, that I want to see the other thing.' But the idea that there's a perjury trap here or there is some legal concept that addresses that -- I think it's misunderstood by a lot of Americans."
Watch the full explanation below:
