Donald Trump taps Rudy Giuliani to oversee post-election legal offensive

Donald Trump has tasked his personal lawyer with overseeing legal challenges to the election results, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, a former mayor of New York. Picture: AFP

President Trump has tasked Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, with overseeing legal challenges to the election results, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The decision came as the legal challenges waged by Mr Trump’s allies in the aftermath of the election are facing major roadblocks and, according to election lawyers and the president’s own advisers, have virtually no chance of overturning Joe Biden’s victory. Mr Giuliani has been one of the few advisers urging the president to keep pursuing the legal battle.

The efforts faced setbacks in three states on Friday. A state judge in Michigan denied a bid to stop certification of Detroit’s election results. Campaign lawyers moved to drop an Arizona legal effort that had sought the same outcome in Phoenix. And judges in the Philadelphia area rejected requests from the Trump campaign to throw out almost 9,000 mail-in ballots over minor errors, such as a missing printed name or address.

Giuliani outside the White House in Washington, DC, on July 1. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump has privately expressed frustration about the losses, even as his advisers have increasingly expressed to the president that he doesn’t have a path to victory, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The president has privately acknowledged that he understands the fight isn’t winnable, the people said. At the same time, he has indicated he wants to keep fighting. In recent conversations, he has urged people close to him to call Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and tell him to address his concerns about the state’s vote-counting more publicly, according to an adviser.

The president and his aides have discussed a longshot strategy of positioning Republican-controlled state legislatures to appoint pro-Trump electors who would swing the Electoral College in his favour, according to people familiar with the discussions. That strategy is unlikely to work, some of Mr Trump’s allies have said.

Mr Giuliani, who did not respond to a request for comment, has long been one of Mr Trump’s most vocal defenders, pushing unsubstantiated assertions about voting fraud in media appearances and online.

The New York Times first reported Mr Giuliani’s elevated role. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office in Washington, DC, in January 16, 2020. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

Some in Mr Trump’s orbit have privately harboured concerns about Mr Giuliani’s involvement in the president’s legal strategy dating back to the president’s impeachment. Mr Giuliani has dismissed concerns about him as stemming from insecurity.

Since Election Day, advisers to the president have said they are alarmed by Mr Giuliani’s role in the legal effort, expressing concern that he was acting on his own and not in co-ordination with the campaign. Mr Giuliani has been in regular contact with lawyers on the ground in Michigan and Pennsylvania, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Advisers have said they’ve sometimes been unsure who is overseeing Mr Trump’s legal efforts.

Last week, Mr Trump tapped longtime adviser David Bossie for the job. Mr Bossie has since been diagnosed with COVID-19. Justin Clark, a top Trump campaign lawyer, has also been deeply involved in the legal strategy, advisers said.

Wall Street Journal