Team Trump goes into battle against impeachment campaign
US president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani leads the fightback against mounting pressure

Donald Trump’s team has intensified its fightback against a rapidly intensifying campaign for an impeachment.
The US president and his “army of surrogates” went into “battle” yesterday, The Guardian says, with Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, at the helm.
How effective Giuliani’s efforts are is a matter of debate in the US. In an at-times incoherent interview on ABC’s This Week, Giuliani said: “I’m not investigating Joe Biden. I fell on Joe Biden in investigating how the Ukrainians were conspiring with the Hillary Clinton campaign to turn over dirty information.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
CNN says Giuliani’s “slipshod strategy” has “backfired spectacularly” on Trump, and “Giuliani himself now faces the prospect of being in the crosshairs of the House's impeachment investigation,” with Democrats saying they have questions for him.
The former New York mayor is himself implicated in Trump’s efforts to solicit the help of the Ukrainian government in his 2020 re-election bid, and the Daily Beast reported that Biden’s camp has written to news networks to ask them no longer to book Giuliani, arguing he “has demonstrated that he will knowingly and willingly lie in order to advance his own narrative”.
Meanwhile, lawyers acting for the whistle-blower at the centre of the impeachment drama say that their client’s personal safety is in danger partly as a result of the president’s remarks.
In a letter to the acting Director of National Intelligence, the lead attorney for the unnamed intelligence official expressed fears on Sunday that the whistle-blower could be put “in harm’s way” were his or her identity made public.
The development came after the New York Times reported that the US president made an indirect threat and showed contempt for the institutional protections afforded to whistle-blowers under federal law.
With tensions rising high, Trump upped the stakes on Twitter yesterday, demanding to meet his accuser.
“Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called ‘Whistleblower,’ represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way,” Trump wrote.
The drama began when a whistle-blower from the intelligence community reported an “urgent concern” that the president had used his office to “solicit interference from a foreign country" in the 2020 US election.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important stories from around the world - and a concise, refreshing and balanced take on the week’s news agenda - try The Week magazine. Get your first six issues for £6–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Is method acting falling out of fashion?
Talking Points The divisive technique has its detractors, though it has also wrought quite a few Oscar-winning performances
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
'There is a lot riding on the deal for both sides'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Pharaoh's tomb discovered for first time in 100 years
Speed Read This is the first burial chamber of a pharaoh unearthed since Tutankhamun in 1922
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump seeks to end New York's congestion pricing
Speed Read The MTA quickly filed a lawsuit to stop the move
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Who is actually running DOGE?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The White House said in a court filing that Elon Musk isn't the official head of Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency task force, raising questions about just who is overseeing DOGE's federal blitzkrieg
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump officials try to reverse DOGE-led firings
Speed Read Mass firings by Elon Musk's team have included employees working on the H5N1 bird flu epidemic and US nuclear weapons programs
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump blames Ukraine for war after US-Russia talks
Speed Read The US and Russia have agreed to work together on ending the Ukraine war — but President Trump has flipped America's approach
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
What will the thaw in Russia-US relations cost Europe?
Today's Big Question US determination to strike a deal with Russia over Ukraine means Europe faces 'betrayal by a long-term ally'
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
The end of empathy
Opinion Elon Musk is gutting the government — and our capacity for kindness
By Theunis Bates Published
-
What is Donald Trump's net worth?
In Depth Separating fact from fiction regarding the president's finances is harder than it seems
By David Faris Published
-
How will Keir Starmer pay for greater defence spending?
Today's Big Question Funding for courts, prisons, local government and the environment could all be at risk
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published