Giuliani faces ethics charges over role in Trump re-election bid

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Rudy Giuliani, one of former US President Donald Trump's primary lawyers throughout his efforts to clutch onto his seat at the White House following his defeat in the 2020 election, must now answer to professional ethics charges over his complicity in the president's efforts to overturn the election results. This is not the first time that Giuliani's career has taken a hit due to his efforts to help Trump, as he was stripped of his law license in New York and the District of Columbia.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the disciplinary branch of the District of Columbia Bar, filed on June 6 the charges against the former federal prosecutor and New York mayor accompanied by allegations of prompting unsubstantiated voter fraud claims in Pennsylvania.

Giuliani had spearheaded a pro-Trump lawsuit seeking to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania. The suit, had the bids been met with success, would have invalidated as many as 1.5 million mail-in ballots, but it was dismissed by courts.

The counsel's office accused Giuliani of violating Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct "in that he brought a proceeding and asserted issues therein without a non-frivolous basis in law and fact for doing so" and "that he engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice."

The counsel called on the DC Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility to handle the matter, and Giuliani has 20 days to respond, the filing said.

This legal step is one of the latest against Giuliani for his role that helped perpetuate Trump's debunked claims of the fraudulence of the 2020 election.

Read more: Trump arranged 7-part plan to overturn 2020 election

Giuliani was suspended by an appeals court last year from practicing law in New York over false statements he made while trying to get the judiciary to overturn Trump's loss. 

A disciplinary committee had asked the court to suspend his license on the grounds of violating professional conduct rules over his prompting of theories that the election was stolen from the Republicans.

A month later, the DC Bar temporarily suspended him, but the practical implication of that action is questionable, as Giuliani's law license in Washington has been on the shelf since 2002.

The action taken by the counsel comes after the first public hearing by the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot that sought to stop Congress from ratifying President Joe Biden's win by raiding the Capitol building and bringing the session to a halt.

Check out: Jan. 6: Who do Americans hold responsible?

Giuliani is the latest piece of the Trump domino to fall in connection to his bids to overturn the 2020 election results, as his former White House aide Peter Navarro was recently charged with contempt of Congress, and subsequently arrested for his refusal to cooperate with the probe into the January 6 riots.

Navarro would be the second Trump aide, after Steve Bannon, to be arrested after defying a legal summons from the House committee investigating the attack.