DC panel recommends disbarring Rudy Giuliani over 2020 elections
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The former mayor of New York worked as an attorney for Trump on a failed lawsuit that challenged the 2020 election results.
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Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks during a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington on November 19, 2020. (AP)
A Washington DC attorney ethics committee has recommended that Rudy Giuliani's legal license be revoked for his involvement in a failed lawsuit disputing the 2020 election results on behalf of then-President Donald Trump.
He risks disbarment in the capital after a review panel chastised him for pursuing the bogus claims about Trump's loss to President Joe Biden.
The report by Panel members Robert Bernius, Carolyn Haynesworth-Murrell and Jay Brozost detailed that Giuliani “claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence”, in the Pennsylvania lawsuit that sought to overturn the results of the election.
Read more: Trump surrenders to face charges leveled against him
From Biden's election up until the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, Giuliani and other Trump lawyers asserted false charges of election fraud, which were nearly universally dismissed by federal and state courts.
He is the third lawyer who may lose his right to practice law as a result of his work for Trump: Lin Wood relinquished his Georgia license last Monday, while John Eastman risks disbarment in California.
The panel noted that “Mr. Giuliani’s effort to undermine the integrity of the 2020 presidential election has helped destabilize our democracy,” and added that the misconduct " transcends all his past accomplishments.
They described the effort as "unparalleled in its destructive purpose and effect. He sought to disrupt a presidential election and persists in his refusal to acknowledge the wrong he has done.”
Giuliani helped to amplify Donald Trump’s false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election. His state law license was reportedly suspended under the pretext of undermining the integrity of the democratic process after propagating “demonstrably false and misleading” narratives.
His New York law license has also already been terminated for making misleading comments after the election. The work of the Washington review panel will now be heard by the DC Court of Appeals for a final determination.
Ted Goodman, a political consultant to Giuliani, urged Washington attorneys to back him up and characterized the panel's work as "the sort of behavior we’d expect out of the Soviet Union."
In the 2008 election, Giuliani attempted a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination that miserably failed.
In January, he was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors for alleged payments received from former President Donald Trump or his presidential campaign
