Trump says he doesn’t know if Giuliani is still his lawyer as impeachment proceedings heat up

Former New York mayor reportedly subject to probe by federal investigators

Donald Trump has told reporters he doesn’t know if Rudy Giuliani is still his personal attorney, as controversy grows around the president’s key ally and his dealings in Ukraine.

Asked on Friday if Mr Giuliani was still his lawyer, the president replied: “Well, I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to Rudy.

“I spoke to him yesterday briefly. He’s a very good attorney and he has been my attorney, yeah, sure.”

He eventually offered his lawyer a more robust defence on Saturday, writing on Twitter: “So now they are after the legendary ‘crime buster’ and greatest mayor in the history of NYC, Rudy Giuliani. He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer.”

But Mr Trump’s apparent move to distance himself from Mr Giuliani reinforces CNN’s reports that several of the president’s aides are warning him that his attorney could be harming his outlook in the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

The scrutiny surrounding Mr Giuliani intensified on Wednesday after two Republican donors with alleged ties to his dealings in Ukraine were arrested on campaign finance charges, both of whom have been pictured with Mr Trump, Mr Giuliani and Mike Pence.

And the The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors had opened an investigation into whether Mr Giuliani broke lobbying laws during efforts to undermine the former US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

Mr Giuliani denied knowledge of such an investigation, and also contradicted Mr Trump’s ambivalence over his employment and their recent communications.

“I am still his lawyer until he tells me I’m not … I spoke to him yesterday and I have no reason to believe I’m not,” he told New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi.

Mr Giuliani said he did not think the president was “preparing to throw him under the bus”, but refused to say whether he would be surprised if Mr Trump did so in the future.

The probe into the former New York mayor is said to be tied to his relationship with the two Ukrainian businessmen arrested on Wednesday – Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.

The pair are accused of sending funds to a congressman they hoped would help oust Ms Yovanovitch, in addition to charges of conspiracy and falsifying records, and were arrested at a Washington airport in possession of one-way tickets out of the country.

On Friday, Ms Yovanovitch defied a government-wide ban by Mr Trump to testify in front of House impeachment investigators, claiming that Mr Trump had personally pressured the State Department to remove her from her position as ambassador.

Ms Yovanovitch said in a prepared statement: “Although I understand that I served at the pleasure of the president, I was nevertheless incredulous that the US government chose to remove an ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”

The transcript of Mr Trump’s now-infamous phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy revealed Mr Trump had described the former ambassador as “bad news”.

Additional reporting by AP