Rudolph Giuliani has been stripped of his law license in New York for aiding former US president Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, the latest blow to the once celebrated federal prosecutor and New York mayor.
Disbarring the 80-year-old attorney was “amply supported by the record,” a New York appeals court held in an order on Tuesday, finding that he “flagrantly misused his prominent position as the personal attorney for former [US] President Trump and his campaign” and “baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process.”
“The seriousness of respondent’s misconduct cannot be overstated,” the five-member panel wrote.
Photo: Reuters
Giuliani “not only deliberately violated some of the most fundamental tenets of the legal profession, but he also actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant,” it said.
Giuliani’s attorney Barry Kamins in an e-mail said that his client “is obviously disappointed in the decision” and that they are weighing options to appeal.
Though not unexpected, Giuliani’s disbarment caps a stunning fall from grace for a man who made his name as a hard-charging federal prosecutor in Manhattan before becoming New York’s mayor and winning praise for his leadership after the terrorist attacks of September 2001. After he left office, his services as a lawyer were in such great demand that a firm he joined adopted his name for a time.
His fortunes declined after he spearheaded the Trump campaign’s legal challenges to US President Joe Biden’s wins in battleground states in the 2020 election.
He is separately fighting disbarment in Washington, where two panels of attorney regulators have recommended that he lose his license to practice for his work after the election.
The city’s highest court has not ruled yet.
Other top legal advisers to Trump, including former US Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark and law professor John Eastman, are facing state disbarment proceedings, but no court has entered final rulings in those cases.
Giuliani’s law license has been suspended in New York since 2021.
Giuliani has faced significant legal fallout for promoting false claims of widespread voter fraud in 2020. He is fighting criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona and was ordered to pay US$148 million for defaming two Georgia election workers. He is appealing that verdict.
In Tuesday’s order, the New York appeals court rebuffed Giuliani’s claim that he had a “good faith basis” for his fraud claims after the election.
“There is nothing on the record before us that would permit the conclusion that respondent lacked knowledge of the falsehood of the numerous statements that he made,” the court wrote. “The 16 acts of falsehoods carried out by respondent were deliberate and constituted a transparent pattern of conduct intended and designed to deceive.”
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