Trump ‘considering hiring Rudy Giuliani for impeachment defense’ as Pelosi to start process on MONDAY for ‘insurrection’
DONALD Trump is considering hiring Rudy Giuliani to defend him after Nancy Pelosi announced Democrats will move to impeach him again over Wednesday's "insurrection."
The president is reportedly considering both , his personal attorney, and Alan Dershowitz, a controversial lawyer who has defended clients like and .
Dershowitz told on Friday that it would be his "honor and privilege" to defend Trump should he be impeached a second time.
However, the lawyer later that he meant it would be an "honor and a privilege to defend the Constitution," not Trump himself.
Dershowitz said he believes Trump encouraging his supporters before is "constitutionally protected" speech.
members of the will introduce formal articles of impeachment on Monday, Representative Ted Lieu said on .
The document accuses Trump of violating his Constitutional duty by encouraging a crowd of his supporters to fight the vote to certify ’s Electoral College victory and denounces him as a “threat to national security.”
“He thereby betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, President Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law,” it continued.
“President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, and profit under the United States.”
Democrats have pressed Vice President Mike Pence to consider the 25th Amendment, but a Pence adviser has said he opposes the idea.
The odds that Trump will actually be removed before January 20, when Biden is sworn in, remain long.
Any impeachment in the House would trigger a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, which is scheduled to be in recess until January 19 and has already acquitted Trump once before.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a memo to his fellow Republican senators suggesting a trial would not begin until Trump was out of office, a source familiar with the document said.
Democrats will take control of the Senate later this month, after Georgia certifies two runoff elections won by Democratic challengers.
Twitter permanently cut off Trump's personal account and access to his nearly 90million followers late on Friday, citing the risk of further incitement of violence, three days after Trump exhorted thousands of supporters to march on the Capitol as Congress met to certify Biden's November 3 election victory.
The resulting assault, viewed with shock around the world, left a police officer and four others dead in its wake, as rioters breached the Capitol and forced lawmakers into hiding for their own safety.
A small but growing number of Republicans have joined calls for Trump to step down, and several high-ranking administration officials resigned in protest.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, said on Friday that Trump should resign immediately and suggested she would consider leaving the party altogether if Republicans cannot separate themselves from him.
"I want him out. He has caused enough damage," she told the Anchorage Daily News.
Senator Ben Sasse, a frequent Trump critic from Nebraska, told CBS News he would "definitely consider" impeachment because the president "disregarded his oath of office."
Another Republican senator, Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey, said on Saturday that Trump "committed impeachable offenses."
“I do think the president committed impeachable offenses,” Toomey, who is planning to retire from office in 2022, said on Fox News.
Trump allies, including Senator Lindsey Graham and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, however, urged Democrats to shelve any impeachment effort in the name of unity.
"Impeaching President Donald Trump with 12 days remaining in his presidency would only serve to further divide the country," said White House spokesman Judd Deere.
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"I was astonished because they are people so disciplined in democracy," the pontiff told Italy's Canale 5 news channel in his first public comments on the events.