Rudy Giuliani called the Capitol riot an 'unfortunate trespass,' the latest attempt by Trump allies to whitewash January 6

• Rudy Giuliani called the Capitol riot an "unfortunate trespass" in an interview with Newsmax Monday.
• Giuliani was pushing a baseless theory that Ashli Babbitt's death was part of a plot.
• Giuliani was recently suspended from practicing law in New York and Washington, DC.

Rudy Giuliani described the Capitol riot as an "unfortunate trespass" in an interview with the right-wing Newsmax channel on Monday.

The former New York City mayor, who more recently worked as former President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, made the comment when asked about the shooting of rioter Ashli Babbitt.

When asked why more details had not been released about Babbitt's death, Giuliani said it was "because this is a completely phony operation."

"They tried to take this unfortunate trespass - which shouldn't have been done - and make it into an insurrection. Well, first of all, this is the only insurrection in which a shot wasn't fired. The only shot fired was the one shot by the police officer at an unarmed woman, which they don't want to talk about. So there's a whole plot behind this."

There is no evidence to suggest that Babbitt's death was orchestrated as Giuliani said in the interview.

Babbitt - a 35-year-old Air Force veteran and QAnon believer - was shot while trying to climb through a window into the Speaker's Lobby, the room outside the House Chamber.

As she was trying to breach the lobby, members of Congress were still in the House Chamber.

In April, the Department of Justice announced that it had finished investigating Babbitt's death and would not be pursuing charges against the unnamed officer who shot her.

Giuliani's Monday remark was the latest attempt by Trump and his allies to whitewash January 6. Many Republicans have conspicuously stopped using the word "insurrection" to describe the event.

Over the weekend, Trump himself tried to paint Babbitt as a right-wing martyr and suggested, without evidence, that a Democratic official was connected to her death.

"Who was the person who shot an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman?" Trump asked Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo in an interview on Sunday. "I will tell you, they know who shot Ashli Babbitt. They're protecting that person. I've heard also that it was the head of security for a certain high official - a Democrat."

Giuliani recently represented Trump in his legal efforts to overturn the election results in multiple states, but the two have become estranged, reports said, with Trump refusing to pay for Giuliani's services.

Giuliani has since been suspended from practicing law in both New York and Washington, DC.

On June 24, an appellate division of New York's Supreme Court granted the petition to suspend Giuliani after finding there was "uncontroverted evidence" that he "communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large" regarding Trump's failed attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.