Giuliani: Mueller to finish Trump obstruction probe by Sept. 1

President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe into obstruction of justice by the president will wrap up by Sept. 1 because allowing it to continue longer could improperly influence the midterm elections in November, according to a report Sunday.

Mueller’s office released a timeline of its investigation to him two weeks ago while he was negotiating with prosecutors over whether Trump would testify, Giuliani told the New York Times.

The former mayor of New York City urged that the investigation end soon, offering as an example the firestorm that former FBI Director James Comey ignited when he announced weeks before the 2016 election that he was reopening the probe into Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Democrats and Clinton have blamed Comey’s decision for costing her the election.

“You don’t want another repeat of the 2016 election where you get contrary reports at the end and you don’t know how it affected the election,” Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, told the newspaper.