President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered aides not to pay the legal fees of his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, raising new questions about who will represent Trump at his next Senate impeachment trial.
Trump expressed disappointment with some of Giuliani’s legal moves in challenging the election results, and did not appreciate his demand for $20,000 a day in the failed push, two officials told the Washington Post.
The officials said the president is also demanding the personally approve all expenses incurred by Giuliani on his multi-state legal campaign to prove election fraud, which quickly fizzled in court.
It comes as Trump is said to be increasingly isolated in his final days in office, lashing out even at once-trusted members of his loyal inner circle.
Unable to air his grievances on Twitter, facing new threats to his family’s business, and now contemplating a second impeachment trial in the Senate, Trump’s relationship with Giuliani is said to be fracturing under the pressure.
President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered aides not to pay the legal fees of his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, angered at his demands for $20,000 per day
In his election challenge push, Giuliani held a notorious press conference held in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside Philadelphia in November, leading to speculation that the location had been booked in the belief it was the posh Four Seasons hotel
Giuliani has been a key legal advisor to Trump in his election challenge, after leading a leading a personal crusade to unearth potential dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine.
The former New York City mayor’s legal charge challenging the election took bizarre turns at times, such as the notorious press conference held in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside Philadelphia.
It led to speculation that the location had been mistakenly booked in the belief that it was the upscale Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia in Center City, although the incident was never fully explained.
At another press conference, at the Republican National Committee in Washington DC, an agitated and sweaty Giuliani appeared to be melting on live TV, with some kind of hair dye dripping down the side of his face.
Trump, who is known to fixate on the image of his aides, insisting they project a polished veneer, was likely unhappy with those debacles and the mockery they drew.
As well, Giuliani now faces his own potential legal exposure for telling supporters to engage in ‘trial by combat’ in his remarks at a January 6 rally, following which Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
At another election fraud press conference, at the Republican National Committee in Washington DC, an agitated and sweaty Giuliani appeared to be melting on live TV
Rudy Giuliani speaks during a Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee hearing in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Trump ran with Giuliani’s claims of massive fraud, continuing to make the case at a rally before the Capitol riot
Defending his rally remarks, Giuliani has said that he was quoting from the HBO series Game Of Thrones, which he inexplicably described as a ‘famous documentary about fictitious medieval England.’
‘I was referencing the kind of trial that took place for Tyrion,’ Giuliani told The Hill, referring to a character from the series.
‘When Tyrion, who is a very small man, is accused of murder. He didn’t commit murder, he can’t defend himself, and he hires a champion to defend him,’ he added.
Giuliani’s comments appear in evidence for impeachment, after a House Judiciary Committee report cited them before the House voted to impeach Trump Wednesday on a single count of ‘incitement to insurrection.’
Giuliani is also facing possible expulsion from the New York State Bar Association over the incendiary remarks. Removal from the bar association, a voluntary membership organization dating to 1876, is not the same as being disbarred and banned from practicing law. That can only be done by the courts.
It’s unclear whether Giuliani’s rally remarks would raise concerns for Trump about including him on his impeachment legal team, but on Sunday Reuters reported that Giuliani may lead the impeachment defense.
Giuliani said his ‘trial by combat’ remarks was a quote from the HBO series Game Of Thrones, which he inexplicably described as a ‘famous documentary about fictitious medieval England’
Trump is now considering hiring a law professor who spoke at his January 6 rally, according to two people familiar with the matter.
John Eastman, who joined Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on stage at the rally, is being considered for a role on Trump’s defense team, the people said.
Eastman, 60, who made unsubstantiated claims of election fraud at the rally, would neither confirm nor deny whether he will represent Trump, citing attorney-client privilege.
Asked whether he would be willing, Eastman said: ‘If the President of the United States asked me to consider helping him, I would certainly give it consideration.’
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Eastman and has declined to comment on Giuliani.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday made Trump the first U.S. president to be impeached twice, charging him with inciting an insurrection as lawmakers sought to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the Nov. 3 election.
A former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Eastman represented Trump last month in unsuccessful challenges to the election.
At the rally, Eastman, who until Wednesday was a professor at Chapman University in California, spoke about ‘secret folders’ of ballots used to defraud the election before Trump took the stage and repeated the discredited claim that the election was stolen from him.
Faculty members and students, among others, subsequently called for Chapman to fire Eastman. In a statement on Wednesday, the university president said an agreement had been reached under which Eastman would immediately retire from Chapman.
John Eastman (left), who joined Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on stage at the January 6 rally, is being considered for a role on Trump’s defense team, sources said
Eastman told Reuters he did not believe he did anything wrong. He does not think Trump has culpability, either. ‘None, whatsoever,’ he said.
Eastman came under fire last summer for an op-ed he wrote in Newsweek that questioned whether Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was eligible to serve because her parents were not U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Newsweek later apologized for publishing the piece.
Trump may have a tough time retaining legal talent. He has had trouble hiring lawyers since former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the widespread condemnation of the violence at the Capitol and pressure from anti-Trump groups may discourage others from signing up.
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Trump was first impeached by the Democratic-led House in 2019 on charges that he pressured Ukraine’s president to announce an investigation of his rival Biden, but was acquitted by the Republican-led Senate in February 2020.
Giuliani´s own pressure on Ukraine helped lead to Trump´s impeachment trial.
At his second trial, Trump will have to do without the services prominent constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who joined his team last year and appeared in the Senate chamber.
Lawyer Alan Dershowitz, seen at Trump’s first impeachment, said he won’t defend Trump at a second impeachment trial, but will defend the First Amendment in public
‘I will be defending the First Amendment in the court of public opinion, not in the Senate,’ Dershowitz told DailyMail.com. He didn’t say whether Trump had asked him to serve in his defense.
White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who helped lead the defense effort during the impeachment over Ukraine, is also not expected to participate in the latest effort, according to one person familiar with the matter. Cipollone will leave his post on Jan. 20, when Biden becomes president.
Jay Sekulow, another personal lawyer for Trump who played a role during the first impeachment, also is not expected to be involved.
John Yoo, a conservative legal scholar who also clerked for Thomas and worked in the Department of Justice during the George W. Bush administration, said on Wednesday he did not think Trump would want him to represent him.
‘I think he committed impeachable acts,’ said Yoo, although he added that he thought incitement was the wrong grounds and ‘the Senate should not convict him.’
