[guest post by Dana]

Given Rudy Guiliani and his uh, level of professionalism, this actually seems like a positive for Team Trump:

President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, will not be taking part in the president’s defense in the Senate trial for his second impeachment, a person close to Mr. Trump said on Monday.

Mr. Trump met with Mr. Giuliani on Saturday night at the White House, and the next day the president began telling people that Mr. Giuliani was not going to be part of the team. It is unclear who will be a defense lawyer for Mr. Trump, given that many attorneys have privately said they won’t represent him.

Mr. Giuliani himself at first said he was taking part in the trial and then a day later said he had no involvement.

He told ABC News on Sunday that he would not be part of the defense, noting that he is a potential witness since he gave a speech at the rally on Jan. 6 of Trump supporters who went on to storm the Capitol complex, overtaking it for hours.

Yet a day earlier, Mr. Giuliani told ABC News that he would in fact be involved in the impeachment defense, and left open the possibility of Mr. Trump showing up for the trial. That interview infuriated Trump advisers and was a bridge too far for the president himself, according to the person close to the president, who described personal conversations on condition of anonymity.

Guiliani specifically said he wouldn’t be on the impeachment defense team because:

I gave an earlier speech [at the January 6 Trump rally], I am a witness and therefore unable to participate in court or Senate chamber.

And most unsurprisingly of all, efforts to engage a credible lawyer have been hampered by…Trump. Of course:

Some allies have also told Trump that he will need to take some responsibility for inciting the riot if he wants a serious lawyer to defend him, which he has indicated he doesn’t want to do.

The President of the United States is facing an impeachment trial and can’t find a credible lawyer to represent him because he, incredibly and yet predictably, doesn’t believe he played a part in what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. But still, even I can think of one or two lawyers that might be willing to do the job. The best part is after the election was called for Joe Biden, they both very publicly and cynically sacrificed their integrity and credibility on behalf of Trump, so they’re already MAGA qualified.

–Dana