US president Donald Trump delivers a statement about his acquittal in his Senate impeachment trial during what he described as "a day of celebration" in the East Room of the White House in Washington on 6 February 2020

Donald Trump launched into another rally-like White House event, this time ostensibly supporting job opportunities for formerly incarcerated people and lower-income communities, during his remarks at an economic summit in Charlotte, North Carolina, hours after declaring that Nancy Pelosi broke the law when she ripped up a copy of his speech and ominously predicting the ousting of an impeachment witness.

The president hit out at Democrats from the White House lawn, calling them "crazy" and "evil" as he celebrated his administration's win in a federal appeals court case that dismissed a lawsuit by congressional Democrats trying to access his financial records to determine violations of the Constitution's emoluments clause.

Lt Col Alexander Vindman, a key impeachment witness as a member of the National Security Council, was escorted from the White House on Friday afternoon, apparent relation for his testimony.

Addressing rumours about staff departures, Mr Trump told reporters: "Well, I'm not happy with him. Do you think I'm supposed to be happy with him? I'm not."

All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Show all 6 1 /6 All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Alan Dershowitz Dershowitz is a controversial American lawyer best known for the high-profile clients he has successfully defended. Those clients have included OJ Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. One longtime Harvard Law associated told the New Yorker Dershowitz "revels in taking positions that ultimately are not just controversial but pretty close to indefensible." Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Ken Starr Starr became a household name in the 1990s as the independent counsel who led the investigation that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment. That investigation began as a look into a real estate scandal known as Whitewater, and eventually led to impeachment after Mr Clinton lied under oath about having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. AP All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Jay Sekulow Sekulow is the president's longtime personal attorney, and, now, personal lawyer in the White House. He has been accused by former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas of being "in the loop" during the Ukraine scandal. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pam Bondi Bondi is the former attorney general in Florida, and a longtime backer of the president's. She made a name for herself in Florida for taking hyper partisan stances on issues, and her penchant for publicity. She is likely to be a prominent public-facing figure during the trial. AFP/Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pat Cipollone Cipollone is the White House counsel, and leading the president's defence team. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Rudy Giuliani While not officially named as one of the president's impeachment lawyers, it is hard to ignore Giuliani's outsized role in this process. The former mayor of New York has been making headlines for months as he defends his client, and for his apparent role in the effort to compel Ukraine to launch the investigation into Joe Biden. We'll see how he figures in the actual trial, which he has said he would like to be a part of. Reuters

On Thursday, the president launched into a blistering, score-settling diatribe against the House Democrats following his impeachment acquittal by the Senate, calling the likes of the House Speaker and Adam Schiff “vicious” and “corrupt”, ex-FBI director James Comey “a sleazebag” and the bureau’s top brass “scum” from the East Room of the White House.

The president labelled his trial “bulls***” and also singled out lone rebel Republican senator Mitt Romney for using “religion as a crutch” in voting for his conviction, although arguably his most menacing proclamation came when he adopted a Mafia-style euphemism to say: “We’re going to take care of things because we can never allow this to happen again.”

His speech was met with widespread alarm, with 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg branding the attack on Mr Romney “disgraceful” and ex-White House ethics chief Walter Shaub warning: “We’re in the heads-on-pikes phase of burgeoning authoritarianism.”

On Friday, following his razor-thin lead in the Iowa caucus, Mr Trump mocked Mr Buttigieg, saying "whoever the hell that is" while attacking Democrats for the drawn-out results.