- Rudy Giuliani told ABC News that he would not be able to represent President Donald Trump during Trump’s second impeachment trial because he was a witness in the case.
- Giuliani appeared with Trump at the January 6 “Save America” rally, where Trump is accused of inciting an insurrection – and where Giuliani called for “trial by combat”.
- It was widely expected that Giuliani, who served as principal adviser on the president’s various challenges for the 2020 election, would head Trump’s impeachment legal team.
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Rudy Giuliani now says he will not be part of President Donald Trump’s impeachment advocacy team.
Calling himself a “witness”, said the president’s personal lawyer ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl that he couldn’t defend Trump against the charge of inciting an insurrection because he attended – and spoke at – the event at the center of the charge.
Giuliani appeared at Trump’s “Save America” rally on January 6 near the White House, where the lawyer told the crowd it was time for “trial by combat”. The aggressive rhetoric at the rally is under scrutiny after many of the participants marched straight to the Capitol, in what has become a riot that has resulted in five deaths.
“If we are wrong, we will be made of fools,” said Giuliani. “But if we are right, many of them will go to jail. Therefore, we will do the trial by combat.” (He later said that he was simply making a reference to “Game of Thrones”.)
The New York State Bar Association has launched a formal investigation into whether Giuliani should be stopped by his comments at the rally.
Two sources close to the White House had previously told Reuters that Giuliani was on the list of candidates to represent Trump during the president’s second impeachment trial.
The former mayor of New York City led the president’s challenges to certifying electoral votes in the 2020 election.
Giuliani is one of the few constants in the president’s life, although last week The Washington Post reported that Trump instructed his advisers not to pay Giuliani’s attorney fees. The president would have been outraged at Giuliani’s $ 20,000 per day fees and had stopped taking his calls.
Former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz was also considered one of Trump’s top picks for his impeachment team. He told The Boston Herald, however, that he would defend Trump in the “court of public opinion” but would not be part of his legal team.