Donald Trump‘s defence team has denied that Rudy Giuliani was sent to Ukraine to do “a political errand” for the president, arguing that the former New York mayor was “spot on” about corruption there and at home.

The omission of any mention of Mr Giuliani as the Trump team spoke on Saturday for three hours, and then during its first two hours on Monday, was striking given the former New York City mayor’s major role in the White House’s Ukraine policy push.

It fell to Jane Raskin, a lawyer who also represented Mr Trump during former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia election meddling investigation, to try to convince senators that Mr Giuliani was not sent to the Eastern European country to “dig up dirt” on US Democrats including the Bidens.

“He was doing what good defence attorneys do,” Ms Raskin said. “He was following a lead ... He was gathering evidence regarding Ukrainian election interference to defend his client against false allegations being investigated by Special Counsel Mueller.”

“It had nothing to do with the 2020 election,” she added, contending that Mr Giuliani was acting as Mr Trump’s personal attorney as he investigated “corruption” the Trump camp believed existed during the last US presidential cycle.

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

She noted that Mr Trump hired the man known as “America’s mayor” six months before former vice president Joe Biden announced his intention to seek the White House for a third time.

Ms Raskin criticised the seven House Democratic managers for mischaracterising Mr Giuliani’s role and intent during their three days of case-making. She accused them of “bias” and taking a “purely political” view of the Ukraine affair.

“The House managers may not like his style. You may not like his style,” Ms Raskin said, describing Mr Giuliani as “everything ... a defence lawyer must be: outrageous, irreverent, blasphemous, a rogue, a renegade”.

Ticking off a list things Republicans say the Mueller investigation and probes by Justice Department internal watchdogs show internal bias against Mr Trump, she declared: “Mr. Giuliani was spot on”.

And in a line that surely pleased her client, she declared “the score is Mr. Giuliani 4, Mr. Schiff 0,” referring to one of Mr Trump’s leading Democratic foils, House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff of California, his party’s lead impeachment manager.

“In this trial,” Ms Raskin said between audible sighs, “Mr. Giuliani is just a minor player.”

House Democrats, however, have a very different view. As he closed the Democrats’ case on Thursday night, Mr Schiff said: “This is why he needs to be removed: Donald Trump chose Rudy Giuliani over his own intelligence [agencies]. He chose Rudy Giuliani over his own FBI director.