A legal disciplinary council recommends Rudy Giuliani permanently lose his license to practice law in the District of Columbia. Essentially, the former New York mayor forfeited this right because of his efforts on behalf of then-President Donald J. Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The Board on Professional Responsibility served with the former mayor a copy of their judgment on July 3, 2023. The disciplinary hearing occurred on December 5-8 and 15, 2022. After Trump waived his attorney-client privilege, Guiliani testified at the hearing about the post-election lawsuits.
Hamilton P. Fox III argued the case against the accused Republican. According to The Washinton Post, Fox said Giuliani had “weaponized” his law license to “undermine the legitimacy of a presidential election, to undermine the basic premise of the democratic system.”
Giuliani violated Rule 3.1 by dishonestly claiming massive election fraud without evidence and filing frivolous lawsuits to overturn the 2020 election.
These lawsuits were all dismissed because they had no factual basis, therefore, no legal grounds to bring before the court. Additionally, the board lists Rule 8:4(d): As Trump’s lawyer, he “engaged in conduct that seriously interferes with the administration of justice.”
Committee Criticism
The committee’s criticism of Giuliani was the dishonest and calculated attempts to undermine trust in United States elections.
Furthermore, he falsely claimed in a federal court there had been election fraud that could overturn former Vice President Joe Biden’s win in Pennsylvania.
According to Democracy Docket, the three-person panel specifically “described how Giuliani’s involvement in Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. v. Boockvar — a case alleging that election fraud took place in Democratic counties and failed to present any such evidence — ‘helped to destabilize our democracy.'”
The filing states, “Mr. Giuliani has not acknowledged or accepted responsibility for his conduct. To the contrary, he has declared indignation over being subjected to the disciplinary process. We are convinced that a sanction must be enhanced to ensure that it adequately deters both the Respondent (Giuliani) and other attorneys from acting similarly in the future.”
Moreover, the committee highlighted how Giuliani’s dishonest actions jeopardized the legal field. They wrote: “Finally, public confidence in our courts, the law, and the legal profession are very much at stake in this unprecedented case. We cannot blind ourselves to the broader context in which Mr. Giuliani’s misconduct took place. It was calculated to undermine the basic premise of our democratic form of government: that elections are determined by the voters.”
Giuliani Team Responds
Giuliani’s political advisor, Ted Goodman, told the Washington Post that the committee’s agenda was to persecute the former mayor on behalf of the permanent corrupt regime in Washington.
In the same email statement, he added, “This is also part of a larger effort to deny President Trump effective counsel by persecuting Mayor Giuliani — objectively one of the most effective prosecutors in American history.”
Goodman told CNN, “The decision-makers at the DC Bar Association are nothing more than an arm of the permanent regime in Washington. Giuliani’s attorneys had told the committee that his litigation was based on information others working on Trump’s campaign told him. They further assert their client “had a reasonable basis to believe the claims in litigation were true.” Then, he demanded that “rank-and-file” members of the D.C. Bar defend the former mayor “against this great injustice.”
Additionally…
Giuliani’s law license was suspended in Washington D.C. in July 2021 after a New York court found that he made “demonstrably false and misleading statements about alleged fraud in the election.” The former mayor is facing at least two other lawsuits, one for the sexual assault of a former employee and a defamation lawsuit by Smartmatic, a voting machine company. Last week met with the prosecution team investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Previously, he appeared before a Georgia grand jury.
Marisa Sarnoff, a Law & Crime reporter, wrote: “Giuliani is one of several high-profile Trump attorneys to face professional consequences for pursuing litigation [based on] conspiracy theories and false statements after the 2020 election.”
The most recent example is the State Bar of California opened a disbarment case against John Eastman on June 23, 2023. Eastman, an attorney and law professor, reported authored the so-called “coup memo,” in which he conspired with Trump to disrupt the electoral count on January 6, 2022.
On July 6, 2023, Law & Crime reported: “L. Lin Wood, a member of Trump’s ‘Kraken’ legal team who has been battling disbarment proceedings for years,” asked the State Bar of Georgia for permission to retire.
Texan attorney and self-reportedly part of the so-called Kraken legal team, Sydney Powell, has not faced disbarment proceedings, at least, not yet. However, she was ordered to pay thousands of dollars in sanctions.
Written by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
Democracy Docket: Report and Recommendation of Ad Hoc Hearing Committee pdf
DC Bar: Rules of Professional Conduct
CNN: Attorney disciplinary committee recommends Rudy Giuliani be disbarred for 2020 election legal work; by Katelyn Polantz
The Washington Post: D.C. Court of Appeals committee recommends Giuliani be disbarred; by Keith L. Alexander.
Spectrum News: Rudy Giuliani suspended from practicing law in New York; by Ari Ephriam Feldman
Law & Crime: Disciplinary panel says Rudy Giuliani ‘forfeited his right to practice law’ by pushing lawsuits to overturn 2020 election results; by Marisa Sarnoff
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