Rudy Giuliani raced to set the record straight Wednesday regarding a tweet by President Donald Trump earlier in the day that is being construed as a command to his attorney general to shut down the Russia investigation.
Trump tweeted, in part: "Jeff Sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now."
Giuliani told CNN that was just the president "expressing his opinion," not a demand.
Trump "was expressing his opinion on his favorite medium, Twitter, for asserting his First Amendment rights," Giuliani told CNN.
"We have been saying for months that it is time to bring this inquiry to an end," Giuliani told CNN. "The president has expressed the same opinion."
Sessions does not have the power to end the investigation anyway, given his recusal from the Russia probe last year. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein oversees special counsel Robert Mueller and the investigation.
Trump's tweet comes a week after Mueller informed Trump's attorneys his team would be reviewing Trump's wealth of tweets aimed at Sessions and former FBI Director James Comey to determine if they rise to the level of obstruction of justice.
Later Wednesday, Giuliani spoke with reporters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and said it is "put up or shut up time" for Mueller and his team at the Department of Justice.
"We believe that the investigation should be brought to a close," Giuliani said. "We think they are at the end of it. They should render their report . . . I guess if we were playing poker, put up or shut up. What have you got? We have every reason to believe they don't have anything.
"The president hasn't done anything wrong. They don't have any evidence he did anything wrong."
Newsmax's Jason Devaney contributed to Giuliani's comments from New Hampshire to this report.