Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani has been stripped of his law license in the state of New York for his efforts to subvert the former President’s 2020 election loss.
A New York appeals court in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, that Giuliani, the former New York City Mayor, federal prosecutor and Trump legal adviser, be “disbarred from the practice of law, effective immediately, and until the further order of this Court, and his name stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law in the State of New York.”
Giuliani was the primary mouthpiece for Trump’s false claims of election fraud after the 2020 vote, saying on the day the race was called for Joe Biden that they would challenge what he claimed was a vast conspiracy by Democrats.
Lies around the election results helped push an angry mob of pro-Trump rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.
According to the court filing, Giuliani “flagrantly misused his prominent position as the personal attorney for former President Trump and his campaign, through which respondent repeatedly and intentionally made false statements … concerning the 2020 Presidential election, in which he baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process.”
The seriousness of his misconduct “cannot be overstated”, it states, adding that 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.”
The court said in its decision that Giuliani “essentially conceded” most of the facts supporting the alleged acts of misconduct.
Instead, the decision said that he argued that he “lacked knowledge that statements he had made were false and that he had a good faith basis to believe the allegations he made to support his claim that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from his client.”
The court said that it found that Giuliani “falsely and dishonestly” claimed during the 2020 Presidential election that thousands of votes were cast in the names of dead people in Philadelphia, including a ballot in the name of the late boxing great Joe Frazier.
He also falsely claimed people were taken from nearby Camden, New Jersey, to vote illegally in the Pennsylvania city, the court said.
The order states that Giuliani must “desist and refrain from practicing law in any form,” including giving to another an opinion as to the law or its application or any advice” or “holding himself out in any way as an attorney and counselor-at-law.”
Giuliani’s Lawyer Says He’s Disappointed But Not Surprised By Disbarment
Giuliani’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala said that he is “obviously disappointed” but not surprised after he was disbarred in the state of New York after a court found he repeatedly made false statements about Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.
Aidala said that they “put up a valiant effort” to prevent the disbarment but “we saw the writing on the wall.”
The New York appeals court decision to disbar Rudy Giuliani comes as the former Mayor of New York City and Donald Trump adviser already had his New York law license suspended for making false statements after the 2020 election.
In May, 2024, Giuliani was also suspended by a New York radio station for using his show to declare that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election because of supposed electoral fraud.
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