President Trump’s new attorney Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should “close” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe – a call that comes amid GOP pressure on Capitol Hill to find out whether the investigation has gone beyond its original mandate. 
 
 Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, criticized Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in several interviews this week. 
 
 “The basis of the case is dead,” Giuliani said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday, claiming the push to uncover collusion with the Russians has turned up no evidence. “Sessions should step in and close it.” 
 
 Such a move would seem unlikely. Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation due to campaign involvement. Rosenstein stepped in, and appointed Mueller to lead his own probe. 
 
 But Giuliani stressed, in a separate interview with Fox News' "Hannity" on Wednesday, that Sessions and Rosenstein should end Mueller’s investigation “in the interest of justice.” 
 
 “There’s been too much government misconduct,” Giuliani said on “Hannity.” “The crimes now have all been committed by the government and their agents.” 
 
 Giuliani’s comments come amid pressure from Republicans on Capitol Hill urging the Justice Department to release the full “scope memo,” which outlines the original scope of the investigation when Mueller was named. 
 
 The Justice Department made public through a court filing a redacted version of the memo, while explaining to Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Mark Meadows, R-N.C., that the full, unredacted version could not be shared because it pertains to an ongoing criminal investigation. 
 
 Still, members are pushing to find out whether his team is probing matters outside that original scope laid out by Rosenstein. 
 
 “On May 17, 2017, I issued an order entitled ‘Appointment of Special Counsel to Investigate Russian Interference with the 2016 Presidential Election and Related Matters,’ appointing you to serve as Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice,” Rosenstein wrote to Mueller in the scope memo. 
 
 The order states that Mueller is authorized to conduct an investigation “confirmed by then-FBI Director James B. Comey in testimony” before the House Intelligence Committee on March 20, 2017, including “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump” and “any matters that arose or may arise directly from that investigation.” 
 
 Rosenstein then includes a more extensive list with a “more specific description” of Mueller’s “authority,” but that portion has been heavily redacted. 
 
 The unredacted details only outline allegations against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, for allegedly committing “a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials” or “arising out of payments he received from the Ukrainian government.” 
 
 The rest of the scope memo is blacked out. 
 
 Rosenstein, meanwhile, warned earlier this week that the Justice Department is "not going to be extorted" after members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus drafted articles of impeachment against him. The articles apparently were drafted as a "last resort" in lawmakers' fight for documents. 
 
 "I can tell you there are people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time and I think they should understand by now: The Department of Justice is not going to be extorted," Rosenstein said. "We’re going to do what is required by the rule of law and any kind of threats that anybody makes are not going to affect the way we do our job." 
 
 Giuliani made his latest comments as he discussed in depth the $130,000 payment Trump attorney Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 to stay silent about accusations of an affair with Trump. Giuliani now says Trump reimbursed that money, but did not know at the time what it was for. Trump disputes the Daniels allegations. 
 
 Last month, following the FBI’s raid of Cohen’s personal properties, and the revelation that it was referred by Mueller’s office, a spokesman for the special counsel referred Fox News to the U.S. Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) Title 28, Section 600.4 regarding “additional jurisdiction.” 
 
 That section indicates Mueller could expand the scope with DOJ consent. 
 
 “If in the course of his or her investigation the Special Counsel concludes that additional jurisdiction beyond that specific in his or her original jurisdiction is necessary in order to fully investigate and resolve the matters assigned, or to investigate new matters that come to light in the court of his or her investigation, he or she shall consult with the Attorney General, who will determine whether to include the additional matters within the Special Counsel’s jurisdiction, or assign them elsewhere,” the code reads. 
 
 Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this report. ||||| CLOSE The former New York Mayor, who recently joined Trump's legal team, directly contradicted the president's claim that he had no knowledge of Michael Cohen's decision to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000. USA TODAY 
 
 President Trump and Rudy Giuliani in 2016 (Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP) 
 
 WASHINGTON — President Trump's new lawyer is casting renewed doubt on whether Trump will sit down with Special Counsel Robert Mueller about the Russia investigation. 
 
 Attorney and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said in various interviews on Fox News that the president should not be under oath, in part because of concern that prosecutors may try to lay a perjury trap for the president. 
 
 "What they’re really trying to do is trap him into perjury, and we’re not suckers,” Giuliani said Thursday on the Fox & Friends morning program. 
 
 Giuliani also questioned the need for Trump's testimony, claiming a lack of evidence that Trump had anything to do with Russians who sought to influence the 2016 election with email hacks and fake news. 
 
 “This silly deposition is about a case in which he supposedly colluded with the Russians but there’s no evidence,” Giuliani said. 
 
 The Mueller investigation has yielded indictments of more than a dozen Russians as well as former Trump associates. 
 
 Appearing on Wednesday night with Fox host Sean Hannity, Giuliani said that right now "the odds are he wouldn't be interviewed" by Mueller, but "I don't close my mind to it." 
 
 More: Trump could face more legal trouble after confirming he repaid Michael Cohen, watchdogs say 
 
 More: Can Robert Mueller subpoena Donald Trump? Only the Supreme Court would know for sure 
 
 More: Ty Cobb's departure means Donald Trump's legal team has almost completely turned over 
 
 More: Donald Trump acknowledges Stormy Daniels payment, denies affair or use of campaign money 
 
 The Mueller and Trump teams have been negotiating for more than four months on possible Trump testimony. Mueller has raised the prospect of a presidential subpoena if Trump refuses to testify, but Giuliani says the special counsel lacks the authority to enforce such a subpoena. 
 
 While most of the coverage of Giuliani's recent television interviews concerned a $130,000 Trump payment to former adult actress Stormy Daniels, the president's attorney also had has new things to say about the Mueller investigation and fired FBI Director James Comey. 
 
 When Trump fired Comey last year, he and aides said it was because of the way the former FBI director handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation during the election. Trump later said it had something to do with the Russia investigation. 
 
 On Fox, Giuliani said Trump also fired Comey because he refused to say publicly that Trump was not a target in the Russia investigation. 
 
 The attorney also called for an interview to last only two to three hours, saying that was the limit President Bill Clinton had when he testified in the Ken Starr/Monica Lewinsky case. 
 
 "I would like to get, one, not under oath," Giuliani told Hannity. "I want a videotape, not videotaped, but audiotapes, I want to make sure they don't misrepresent his answers." 
 
 Giuliani's comments reflect a more aggressive attitude by Trump legal team in the wake of a personnel shakeups. 
 
 Private attorney John Dowd left the team in March, and White House attorney Ty Cobb announced this week he will be retiring soon. Both had urged a more conciliatory approach to the special counsel. 
 
 On Fox & Friends, Giuliani said the odds of an interview became longer after the FBI raided the home and office of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. He also blamed Mueller's office for the public revelation of a list of questions it wants to ask of Trump, though there is no evidence the Special Counsel's office leaked the document. 
 
 "Now, we are going to have some convincing to do," Giuliani said. "They’re going to have to convince us they’re going to be objective and they are not out to get us.” 
 
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– New Trump legal team member Rudy Giuliani told Fox News that the president may not sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller and that if he does, he should not be under oath, reports USA Today. "What they’re really trying to do is trap him into perjury, and we’re not suckers,” the former NYC mayor said Thursday morning on Fox & Friends. The remarks came less than a day after Giuliani’s bombshell interview with Fox host Sean Hannity, in which Giuliani said President Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for “hush money” paid to porn star Stormy Daniels. Giuliani’s statement follows four months of negotiations between the Mueller and Trump teams that have included talk of a subpoena if Trump refuses to testify in the special counsel probe into Russian interference with the 2016 US election. Giuliani also said that any interview with Trump should be limited in time. “They should be able to do this, if they have a case, in two or three hours,” Giuliani said during a series of media interviews Thursday, as reported in the Washington Post. But Giuliani also said, per Fox, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should shut the probe down entirely as it has uncovered no evidence of collusion with the Russians. Trump has said in the past that he would be willing to be interviewed by Mueller, but he lately appears to be walking back some of those statements. Per the Post, some of Trump’s advisers worry that open-ended questions from Mueller could result in "meandering" answers from Trump that lead to accusations of perjury. In the Hannity interview Wednesday night, Giuliani said "the odds are [Trump] wouldn't be interviewed" by Mueller, but he added, "I don't close my mind to it."