Why Giuliani May Not Represent Trump In A Second Impeachment Trial

As Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani has been by the president's side even before the November 3 presidential elections. And since the polls, the former New York city mayor has been managing a series of legal challenges that would have legitimized Trump's claims that he won in the November 3 elections, according to The New York Times. As compensation for his efforts, there were reports that Giuliani had asked for $20,000 a day, which he has since denied. "I never asked for $20,000. The arrangement is, we'll work it out at the end," he told the Times in December. 

But that arrangement may never come to pass, thanks to Trump's second impeachment which, White House officials tell The Washington Post, has left the president feeling abandoned by his supporters."The president is pretty wound up. No one is out there," one Trump White House official says. 

Trump's anger has been directed at one person in particular: his personal lawyer. Two administration officials say Trump has told his aides not to settle Giuliani's legal fees, and that the president personally wanted to look over and give the go ahead for any reimbursements for bills and expenses that Giuliani might have racked up as he was traveling (via The Washington Post).

If the outgoing president doesn't change his mind, it could mean Giuliani won't be called upon to defend Donald Trump when the Senate Impeachment trial comes around, and it's not clear who Trump might call upon to help with his legal defense. Reuters says a number of lawyers who have worked for Trump appear to be backing away from the president, including White House counsel Pat Cipollone and another Trump lawyer, Jay Sekulow.

This doesn't mean Giuliani can rest easy. Because he played a highly visible role in the rally that preceded the violence on January 6, Giuliani is now in the crosshairs of New York's lawyers and politicians (via The New York Times). The chairman of the State Senate's judiciary committee, Senator Brad Hoylman has sent a letter to New York's state court system calling for Giuliani to be stripped of his license to practice law, because Hoylman feels the president's lawyer carried out ethical violations when he supported and repeated Trump's claims of election fraud. Hoylman said that repeating those claims on January 6 helped to stir up the crowds who eventually stormed the Capitol.

Giuliani also faces being removed as a member of the New York State Bar Association, who viewed his speech in the January 6 rally as encouragement for Trump supporters to take matters into their own hands. The Bar Association says its bylaws don't grant membership to a "person who advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States, or of any state, territory or possession thereof, or of any political subdivision therein, by force or other illegal means." Giuliani has dismissed the Bar Association's deliberations as a political act (via CNBC).