Jack Smith could use Rudy Giuliani's alleged drunken benders to destroy key Trump defense: report

Many witnesses who spoke with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots have indicated that former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was repeatedly inebriated in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.

Now sources are telling Rolling Stone that special counsel Jack Smith may use these alleged instances of inebriation to undermine a key defense that former President Donald Trump is expected to make during his trial: Namely, that his efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election were merely the result of him following the best advice of his attorneys.

"In their questioning of multiple witnesses, Smith’s team of federal investigators have asked questions about how seemingly intoxicated Giuliani was during the weeks he was giving Trump advice on how to cling to power," the publication writes. "The special counsel’s team has also asked these witnesses if Trump had ever gossiped with them about Giuliani’s drinking habits, and if Trump had ever claimed Giuliani’s drinking impacted his decision making or judgment. Federal investigators have inquired about whether the then-president was warned, including after Election Night 2020, about Giuliani’s allegedly excessive drinking."

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In other words, if Trump were knowingly taking legal advice from a drunken Giuliani, it would hurt claims that he was solely seeking the best sober-minded legal advice available to him rather than just cherry-picking the advice of people who told him only what he wanted to hear.

Smith's team has also reportedly questioned witnesses about Trump's past mockery of attorney Sidney Powell as "crazy" in an apparently attempt to establish that he was willfully seeking out unsound advice on the grounds that it could help him remain in power.