Trump may turn to Rudy Giuliani again to defend him in case he is impeached

US President Donald Trump may turn to Rudy Giuliani to defend him against possible impeachment over his role in last week’s violent siege of the Capitol.

Giuliani has been an outspoken Trump supporter since his first run for president. He became a personal lawyer for him during the Mueller probe, which found that Trump impeded the investigation but stopped short of concluding he had committed a crime.

Giuliani's own pressure on Ukraine helped lead to Trump's impeachment trial last year and he also played a role in events leading to the violence at the Capitol, which led to the deaths of five people, including a police officer.

Democratic members of the House of Representatives are expected to introduce articles of impeachment this week, accusing Trump of inciting a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol last Wednesday.

According to a report in Reuters, Giuliani is expected to play a lead role in case a impeachment process is kicked in.

He had led the legal team that tried unsuccessfully to overturn Trump's election defeat. It failed to produce any evidence of significant fraud and lost dozens of court cases in key battleground states and at the Supreme Court before President-elect Joe Biden's victory was confirmed.

Giuliani's own reputation was battered during the often chaotic legal campaign. In one news conference, brown dye dripped down his face as he laid out false claims of election fraud, and he was ridiculed for another event held in the parking lot of a Pennsylvania landscaping company next to a sex shop.

If the House votes to impeach Trump, he would then face a trial in the Senate. While a House vote could come quickly, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has suggested that there would be no Senate trial until after Trump leaves office.

Lawmakers might wait to send the impeachment article to the US Senate for a trial to give Congress time to approve Biden’s Cabinet nominees and other agenda items.

Trump's choice of lawyers to defend him may, however, be limited.

White House counsel Pat Cipollone helped lead the defence team during an impeachment trial last year, when Trump was accused of abusing his power by asking Ukraine's government to announce investigations to discredit Biden, his Democratic political rival.

But Cipollone considered resigning last week after the siege at the Capitol, according to a source, and he and other White House lawyers will be out of their jobs anyway when Trump leaves office on January 20.

Longtime personal lawyers for Trump such as Jay Sekulow are not expected to defend the president, the Reuters report added.

(with inputs from Reuters)