The D.C. board that oversees lawyer discipline recommended Friday that Rudy Giuliani, former New York mayor and former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, not be allowed to practice law in the nation’s capital.
The decision by the D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility came after lengthy hearings in 2022 and follow-up court filings last year in which a legal licensing discipline committee determined that Giuliani violated the terms of his license to practice law in the capital of the nation when he filed a lawsuit. in Pennsylvania attempting to block certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
In announcing its recommendation, which will now head to the D.C. Court of Appeals, the board referenced arguments during the hearings that Giuliani had weaponized his law license to undermine the election, an argument Giuliani has characterized as “ “political” and devoid of merit.
In its decision, the board highlighted the extent to which the complaint raised unfounded allegations of fraud, stating that the disbarment of a lawyer due to “frivolous litigation cases” is rare, but that the Pennsylvania lawsuit was unprecedented.
“We conclude that disbarment is the only sanction that will protect the public, the courts, and the integrity of the legal profession, and will deter other attorneys from bringing similarly baseless lawsuits in pursuit of such broad but completely unwarranted relief,” Bernadette C. , Board Chairman Sargeant wrote in the 62-page decision.
In its decision, the board highlighted several elements of Pennsylvania’s lawsuit, including Giuliani’s allegations that election boards in seven Pennsylvania counties were engaged in a deliberate scheme to change the outcome of the election by counting mail-in votes that did not They should have been counted. The board also noted that Giuliani urged a federal judge to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania voters even though he had “no objectively reliable evidence” that such a plan existed or that illegal mail-in votes had been counted. .
Giuliani’s lawsuit, filed on behalf of Trump, was rejected by a judge. A federal appeals court refused to allow the campaign to file a revised complaint. During his testimony before the board’s Ad Hoc Hearing Committee, Giuliani often downplayed his role in the litigation while claiming that he had done nothing wrong.
The former Republican mayor then said that other lawyers were responsible for the language of the lawsuit and that he himself had little time to fully investigate the allegations before filing it. He stated that doing so is common practice, since allegations in lawsuits are often investigated after cases are filed.
In arguing the case against Giuliani, Hamilton P. Fox III rejected those claims and said Giuliani had used his law license “to undermine the basic premise of the democratic system in which we all live, which has been in place since the 19th century in this country”. country.”
A spokesman for Giuliani, 80, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Giuliani has been licensed to practice in the District of Columbia since he was admitted to the D.C. Bar in 1976. Giuliani’s license has been temporarily suspended in the District after the Appellate Division of the New State Supreme Court York in 2021 will suspend its license in that state.
D.C. Court of Appeals judges will hear oral arguments before making a final decision. No date has been set.
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