Though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has yet to transmit the House-passed articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate for a trial, a great deal of attention has already been focused on what that eventual trial will look like and its likely outcome.
Based on commentary Tuesday night from Rudy Giuliani, one of President Trump’s personal attorneys, his preferred vision of an eventual trial would include him providing testimony and — if he were given the opportunity — taking an even more active role in the case, The Hill reported.
“I would testify”
The remarks from Giuliani came as he briefly spoke with reporters while at a New Year’s Eve party held at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Asked if he would testify in a Senate impeachment trial, Giuliani replied, “I would testify. I would do demonstrations, I’d give lectures, I’d give summations.”
Taking off his glasses while leaning in toward the reporters, the attorney continued: “Or, I’d do what I do best — I’d try the case. I’d love to try the case.”
“Prosecute it as a racketeering case”
Giuliani began to depart, but reporters continued to shout questions at him. Turning back toward them, he said, “I don’t know if anybody would have the courage to give me the case, but if you give me the case I will prosecute it as a racketeering case, which I kind of invented anyway.”
“So, it’s been 30 years ago, but let’s see if I can still do it. Thank you,” he added as he walked away.
Watch this clip while keeping in mind that Giuliani is talking about an impeachment case in which his client could be removed from office pic.twitter.com/l8nWMAqSu1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 1, 2020
On the offensive
Based on the comments to the above tweet from a liberal Vox reporter, it would appear that some folks on the left interpreted Giuliani’s remarks to mean that he would flip on the president and testify against him, which would indeed be a stunning and unexpected plot twist.
However, as USA Today pointed out, the infinitely more likely explanation is that Giuliani would like to use the impeachment trial as a venue to reveal the purportedly damning information he has uncovered — about former Vice President Joe Biden and others — while conducting fact-finding missions in Ukraine.
It is Giuliani’s “shadow diplomacy” in Ukraine that sits at the heart of the impeachment effort against Trump, and many on the left are champing at the bit for an opportunity to question Giuliani under oath about what exactly he was doing in the former Soviet republic.
Unfortunately for them, based on what Giuliani had to say to those reporters and the hints he has dropped in recent weeks, the left probably won’t like what he would have to say or could potentially reveal in a Senate trial setting.
It remains to be seen if such a scenario would ever be allowed to come to fruition.
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