Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday that he won’t be a part of Trump’s impeachment legal team because of his involvement in the rally that led to the attack on the nation’s Capitol.
“Because I gave an earlier speech at the rally, I am a witness and therefore unable to participate in court or in the Senate chamber,” Giuliani said.
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At the rally Giuliani urged the crowd to engage in “trial by combat” before the mob stormed the Capitol.
“I’m willing to stake my reputation, the president is willing to stake his reputation, on the fact that we’re going to find criminality in the election,” he said at the time.
Giuliani told ABC News that he was prepared to argue that Donald Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud did not constitute incitement to violence because the widely-debunked claims are true.
It’s arguments like that that’s causing some in Republican circles to argue against having Rudy Giuliani anywhere near the impeachment trial in the Senate.
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Republican strategist Karl Rove said Trump’s chances of conviction in a Senate trial increases if the man who led his attempts to overturn the results of the election represent him at the trial.
“I think it’s all going to boil down to what the president’s defense is,” Rove said. A Giuliani defense “raises the likelihood of more than 17 Republicans voting for conviction.”
The election fraud argument, Rove noted on Sunday, “has been rejected by over 50 courts,” including some Trump appointees.
