Trump Hasn’t Chosen Impeachment Defense Team, Campaign Spokesman Says

President Donald Trump speaks at the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum in Jupiter, Fla., on Sept. 8, 2020. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

A spokesman for President Donald Trump’s campaign says the president hasn’t yet decided who will represent him during the upcoming impeachment trial.

“President Trump has not yet made a determination as to which lawyer or law firm will represent him for the disgraceful attack on our Constitution and democracy, known as the ‘impeachment hoax,'” J. Hogan Gidley, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said in a statement on Jan. 17.

“We will keep you informed.”

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed on Jan. 16 that he was going to help defend the president during the trial.

“I’m involved right now ... that’s what I’m working on,” Giuliani told ABC News. Giuliani, who was at the White House on Jan. 16, didn’t respond to an inquiry.

The House of Representatives impeached Trump on Jan. 13; lawmakers allege Trump incited the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, in part through his speech that day in Washington.

Protesters speak to U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)

A timeline shows Trump was still speaking to supporters when protesters began breaking through police lines some two miles away, and the president has defended his speech as “totally appropriate.”

It isn’t clear when the impeachment trial will start, since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is keeping secret for now when the body will transmit the article to the Senate. Even if it were transmitted, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has declined to call the Senate into session. The upper congressional chamber is scheduled to be on break until Jan. 19.

Trump is set to leave office on Jan. 20, when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.

Trump was impeached in 2019. In a trial in 2020, he was represented by a number of lawyers, including White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Jay Sekulow, and Alan Dershowitz.

None have said so far that they'll represent Trump again. Dershowitz told the Boston Herald last week that he wouldn’t be part of Trump’s defense team.

“I’m going to be defending him in the court of public opinion,” he said.