Rudy Giuliani's D.C. law license suspended
A District of Columbia court on Wednesday suspended the D.C. law license of Rudy Giuliani, following a similar move by a New York court last month. The D.C. Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that Giuliani, who used to be former President Trump's personal attorney, would be "suspended from the practice of law in the District of Columbia," pending the resolution of the "disciplinary matter in New York."
On June 24, a New York appeals court ruled that there was "uncontroverted evidence" that Giuliani had "communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large" in the course of his efforts to overturn former President Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election.
"The seriousness of respondent's uncontroverted misconduct cannot be overstated," the New York court said in the 33-page decision. "This country is being torn apart by continued attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election and of our current president, Joseph R. Biden. The hallmark of our democracy is predicated on free and fair elections. False statements intended to foment a loss of confidence in our elections and resulting loss of confidence in government generally damage the proper functioning of a free society."
Giuliani's lawyers called the New York decision "unprecedented" and said they believed he would be eventually be reinstated.
From 1983 until 1989, he served as the top federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, and was elected New York City mayor in 1993, after losing a previous bid. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he was hailed as "America's mayor" and even ran for president in 2008.
Amid special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation in 2018, Giuliani joined Mr. Trump's personal legal team. Although he did not argue in either of the former president's impeachment trials, he was a key figure in both. His own actions regarding Ukraine on behalf of Mr. Trump were heavily scrutinized in the first impeachment trial, and in the second, Giuliani also a potential witness because he was a speaker at the January 6 Trump rally that preceded the assault on the Capitol. Following the 2020 election, Giuliani was among the most vocal Trump lawyers fighting to overturn the election results. He held a press conference shortly after President Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, in which he alleged that ballots were tampered with in Pennsylvania, though he had no evidence.
While Giuliani and the former president continued to claim until the January 6 attack that the elections in several key battleground states were rife with fraud, they failed to produce any evidence to support their allegations and suffered a string of defeats in federal court.
Giuliani is now under investigation for by federal investigators for his dealings in Ukraine. In April, federal agents executed a search warrant at Giuliani's residence in New York as part of the probe.
