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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Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen and John Legend to perform at Biden's inauguration event

Eva Longoria, Kerry Washington, the Foo Fighters, John Legend and Bruce Springsteen have joined the growing list of celebrities who will appear at the star-studded event celebrating Biden's inauguration next week.

The event, hosted by Tom Hanks, will be a primetime television special that will air the night after the swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20.

Longoria and Washington "will introduce segments throughout the night ranging from stories of young people making a difference in their communities to musical performances," Biden's inaugural committee said in a statement Friday.

Meanwhile, the Foo Fighters, Springsteen and Legend will perform remotely "from iconic locations across the country, joining Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, Ant Clemons and Jon Bon Jovi with additional performances to be announced ahead of January 20," the committee said.

The committee had previously announced that Lady Gaga will sing the national anthem while Biden and Harris are sworn in. Jennifer Lopez will also give a musical performance.

-ABC News' Beatrice Peterson


Pelosi says managers are 'preparing' for Trump's impeachment trial

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Friday that "our managers are solemnly and prayerfully preparing" for Trump's impeachment trial, "which they will take to the Senate."

"Justice is called for as we address the active insurrection that was perpetrated against the Capitol complex last week," Pelosi said during her weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.

Pelosi did not specify when the article of impeachment will be sent to the Senate, prompting the trial. According to Senate rules, the trial would begin the day after the impeachment charge is sent over by the House of Representatives.

"You'll be the first to know when we announce that we're going over there," she told reporters.

Pelosi noted how quickly the House voted to impeach the president, just one week after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which she said was "incentivised" by Trump.

"So urgent was the matter," she told reporters.

When asked about the role members of Congress may have played in the riot, Pelosi said they would be held accountable.

"If it in fact it is found that members of Congress were accomplices to this insurrection, if they aided and abetted the crime," she said, "there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress in terms of prosecution."

The speaker also announced that she's asked retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore -- who helped coordinate the military relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina -- to lead an "immediate review" of security failings at the Capitol, reviewing security infrastructure, the interagency process, and command and control.

At the start of Friday's press conference, Pelosi quoted Martin Luther King Jr., saying, "True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel


Biden announces additions to White House staff

Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have announced additional White House picks -- with many familiar faces from Biden's 2020 campaign staff.

While she was not expected to join the administration and instead return to her communication’s firm SKDKnickerbocker, Anita Dunn will be serving as a senior adviser to the president -- marking yet another longtime Biden adviser and a member of the highest echelons of his campaign joining the White House in a senior role.

TJ Ducklo, the national spokesperson for the campaign, will also join the White House as deputy press secretary alongside Karine Jean-Pierre. Deputy press secretary Matt Hill will join as a senior associate communications director.

Biden’s campaign photographer and videographer will also take on similar roles in the administration.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle


House committee asks hotels, travel companies to help identify 'inciters and attackers'

The House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Reform has sent letters to two dozen hotels and private travel companies seeking help in identifying rioters and preventing future attacks in Washington, D.C., ahead of Biden's inauguration.

"While the inciters and attackers bear direct responsibility for the siege on the Capitol and will be held fully accountable, they relied on a range of companies and services to get them there and house them once they arrived—companies that law-abiding Americans use every day, but whose services were hijacked to further the January 6 attacks," committee chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., wrote in the letters. "Trump supporters chartered scores of buses and vans and drove in caravans to the nation’s capital. They stayed in D.C. hotels, with videos showing attackers relaxing in the lobby of one hotel after the insurrection."

The committee has asked the businesses -- ranging from major hotel chains to bus and car rental companies -- to retain records of January reservations for future congressional investigations, to put in place additional screening measures "to ensure that your services are not being used to facilitate violence or domestic terrorism," and to provide information to the committee by Jan. 29 on those measures.

-ABC News' Ben Siegel


Pelosi planning to send article to Senate next week, names impeachment managers

Expecting the article to pass the House later Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to send the article of impeachment over to the Senate next week, according to a source involved in the Democratic leadership deliberations.

This would leave the Senate no choice but to immediately move towards a trial. The exact timing will depend on whether Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decides to call the Senate back in session early -- which he's said he wouldn't do. Under Senate rules, the Senate cannot officially receive any message or bill or resolution from the House unless the Senate is in session, and the chamber is not scheduled to be back until Jan. 19.

But in preparation for that time, Pelosi has named nine members to serve as impeachment managers to argue the case in the Senate to remove Trump from office over his role in last week’s Capitol riot.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a former constitutional law professor who co-authored the article and whose family was present at the Capitol last Wednesday, one day after burying Raskin's son who took his own life, will serve as the lead impeachment manager.

The other managers -- one of rarest assignments for a House member -- are Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette, Colo., David Cicilline, R.I., Joaquin Castro, Texas, Eric Swalwell, Calif., Ted Lieu Calif., Joe Neguse, Colo., Madeleine Dean, Pa., and Del. Stacey Plaskett, Virgin Islands.

"It is their constitutional and patriotic duty to present the case for the President’s impeachment and removal. They will do so guided by their great love of country, determination to protect our democracy and loyalty to our oath to the Constitution," Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday night.

The impeachment managers are a different set from those tapped by Pelosi one year ago for Trump’s first impeachment trial -- then led by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. During that effort, managers argued the case to remove Trump for pressuring Ukraine’s president to promise to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter.

-ABC News' Jonathan Karl and Chad Murray