Giuliani says he won’t be on Trump impeachment defense team

Trump was impeached by the House for a second time last week.

President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in three days.

The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump last Wednesday on an article for "incitement of insurrection" for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol -- making him the only president to be impeached twice.


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House votes to impeach, Trump becomes only president impeached twice

The House of Representatives has voted to impeach President Trump -- making Trump the only president in American history to be impeached twice.

Ten Republicans have sided with Democrats in the ongoing vote for impeachment with the count currently standing at 225-194.

217 votes were needed to impeach the president.

House lawmakers charged Trump with one article of impeachment for "incitement of insurrection" citing his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has declined to yet say publicly when the House will send the article over to the Senate, a source involved in the Democratic leadership deliberations told ABC News earlier Wednesday Pelosi plans to send the article to the Senate next week.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office confirmed earlier in the day that the Senate will not return early for an impeachment trial, so the earliest the trial could start is Jan. 19 -- a day before Biden's inauguration.

-ABC News' Trish Turner


7th House Republican will vote to impeach Trump

Republican Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan is the seventh House Republican to announce he will vote to impeach Trump, announcing his intention in a statement posted to Twitter moments before voting got underway.

"President Trump betrayed his oath of office by seeking to undermine our constitutional process, and he bears responsibility for inciting the insurrection we suffered last week. With a heavy heart, I will vote to impeach President Donald J. Trump," he said in a tweet, attaching a longer statement.

Meijer joins Republican Reps. John Katko, N.Y., Liz Cheney, Wyo., Adam Kinzinger, Ill., Fred Upton, Mich., Jaime Herrera Beutler, Wash., and Dan Newhouse, Wash, in saying he will vote to impeach the president.

No House Republicans voted to impeach Trump in 2019.


Impeachment debate concluded, vote underway

The House has concluded debate on the second impeachment of Trump for "incitement of insurrection." The vote is now underway and is expected to take 40 minutes to one hour.

House Democrats are expected to vote to impeach the president. Seven Republicans have announced that they also plan to vote to impeach.

The House needs a simple majority to impeach the president.


GOP, Dems deliver closing arguments ahead of vote with scathing rebuke of Trump from Hoyer

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. -- the No. 2 Republican in the House -- was the last to speak for the Republican Party, said he opposed the "rushed" impeachment, and emphasized that the Senate will only be able to take up the trial once Trump is out of office.

"I've seen the dark evil of political violence firsthand. And it needs to stop. But all of us need to be unequivocal in calling it out every single time we see it, not just when it comes from the other side of the aisle," he said.

Invoking President Abraham Lincoln, he closed by calling on Americans to unify and "seek higher ground."

House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., quickly responded to his remarks, saying, "We can have all this, and we can have accountability too," before handing off to Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

Hoyer, in a scathing rebuke of the president, repeated the words of Rep. Liz Cheney and called on his Republicans colleagues to rise to the moment and join her to "reject the vices we abhore."

"It is the first and only physical presence other than the 9/11 attack on this nation -- which came from abroad with a plane aimed at our Capitol dome. This attack was not from abroad. It was as Liz Cheney said, summoned, assembled, and inflamed by the president of the United States of America," he said.

"Last Wednesday, on Jan. 6, the nation and the world watched it shatter to pieces. There could be no mistaking any longer the kind of man sitting in the Oval Office or his intentions and capabilities. The curtain has been pulled back. The office to which he was elected could not temper or reform him," Hoyer said.

"Reject deceit. Reject fear mongering. Reject sedition, tyranny and insurrection," Hoyer said. "Reject one man over fidelity to one's country."

Hoyer noted that soon the House Reading Clerk will call the roll for voting, and added, "Make no mistake, this will be no ordinary roll call."

"These votes will be inscribed on the roll of history -- a record of courage -- and of our commitment to country and Constitution, of our commitment to the rule of law and renewal of that which we inherited and hope to pass on, unbroken, unshattered," he said. "Vote for this -- for America, for our constitution, for democracy, for history."


Mike Lindell’s meeting with Trump

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on Friday was pictured outside of the Oval Office with a document appearing to detail drastic actions just days away from Biden's inauguration. The pillow inventor, who previously called for “martial law” in a now-deleted tweet, confirmed to ABC News that he met with Trump and presented him with a separate document filled with theories regarding election hacking.

The theories are related to repeatedly discredited claims that Trump had actually won the election.

The photograph went viral on Twitter after users speculated the document showed mentions of “martial law” and the “insurrection act.” 


White House sources stressed that nothing Lindell presented was taken seriously nor would it be acted upon by administration officials.

In an interview with ABC News, Lindell, a fierce supporter of the president, said his meeting with Trump was brief ("it was real fast") and said White House lawyers who reviewed the documents after his meeting with the president seemed “disengaged” and “disinterested,” which he said was “disturbing.”

“There was no mention of martial law,” Lindell said regarding the document photographed by the Washington Post, which he claims comes from one of the attorneys he said he has hired to investigate election fraud but would not identify to ABC News. 


Another section of the notes appears to read, "Move Kash Patel to CIA Acting" and "Make clear this is China/Iran." Much of the notes are not visible in the photo.

When asked if he read that document, Lindell told ABC News, “I glanced at it.”

“I'm going to be honest. I read that -- I don't know the names. I don't understand half the stuff on there," Lindell said. "...I don't know the names on there. I think there were suggestions on who to move."

Lindell said the photographed document was just a part of the bigger packet he had brought to the White House, and that his main intention was to show the president an article that alleges multiple foreign countries hacked the 2020 U.S. election. He said during the brief time he had with the president, he spoke to him about this article.

-ABC News’ Will Steakin, Soorin Kim and John Santucci