It appears that all is not sunny between U.S. President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
On Wednesday, Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached for a second time, with members of the lower chamber of Congress voting 232 to 197 in favour of impeaching him over one charge: “incitement of insurrection.”
Ten Republicans broke party ranks to vote for impeachment.
According to a report from The Washington Post, Trump is livid at the development, and as a result is “refusing to pay” Giuliani his legal fees, which reportedly amount to approximately US$20,000 per day — a figure Giuliani has disputed.
Further, White House officials have allegedly been told not to answer any of Giuliani’s phone calls, says the report.
This heaps more trouble onto Giuliani’s plate, as the lawyer is already under scrutiny for his comments prior to last week’s history-making Capitol riot.
During Trump’s rally, he declared, “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 there,” referring to the November 2020 election, which Joe Biden won.
“Let’s have trial by combat,” he famously added, right before large groups of rioters stormed the Capitol building.
This week, he faces expulsion from the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) after it announced an investigation into Giuliani’s conduct.
“The president did not act alone,” the NYSBA said in a statement on Monday. It added that Giuliani helped rile up the protesters with baseless claims of voter fraud — claims that have already been thoroughly discredited in dozens of court battles since Nov. 3.
Giuliani hadn’t argued a case in court for over two decades before he agreed to fight Trump’s election loss in early November. He kicked off that campaign with a bizarre press conference in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, next to an adult bookstore in Philadelphia, Pa., on Nov. 7.
Giuliani introduced his baseless claims of voter fraud at that conference, just as the election was finally called for Biden.
Later in November, Giuliani repeated his unfounded claims of voter fraud at a lengthy press conference alongside what he called an “elite strike force” of lawyers. Giuliani appeared to sweat through his hair dye while offering movie impressions and no evidence to back his claims.
He then ceded the floor to Sidney Powell, a lawyer and QAnon supporter who laid out her theory that Communists, Hillary Clinton, Venezuela and the ghost of Hugo Chavez had conspired to rob Trump of re-election.
Giuliani’s team later cut ties with Powell, who continued to fight a rogue battle against the election results anyway. Giuliani suffered defeat after defeat in court, and faced several stinging rebukes from judges who tossed out his cases.
Giuliani was tied up in Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Biden’s son in late 2019, which led to the call that saw Trump impeached the first time. Trump was later acquitted in the Republican-controlled Senate, following a trial with no witnesses.
Giuliani addressed the complaints against him on his Monday afternoon radio show.
“I was a prosecutor all my life — I’m not stupid,” he said. “I don’t want to get in trouble. And I have a high sense of ethics, personally. I hate it when people attack my integrity.”
— with files from Global News’ Josh K. Elliott and Hannah Jackson