The D.C. Bar Association on Friday recommended that former Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani be disbarred over his attempt to challenge the 2020 election.
The association’s preliminary report by a three-lawyer panel reviewing his conduct concluded that Mr. Giuliani “seriously undermined the administration of justice” by filing a suit “seeking to change the result of the 2020 presidential election when he had no factual basis, and consequently no legitimate legal grounds, to do so.”
“The right to vote is the ‘essence of a democratic society.’ Respondent’s frivolous lawsuit attempted unjustifiably and without precedent to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania voters, and ultimately sought to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. He claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it,” the committee wrote in its report.
“By prosecuting that destructive case, Mr. Giuliani, a sworn officer of the court, forfeited his right to practice law. He should be disbarred.”
Although the report is not the final say on whether or not Mr. Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and former mayor of New York, can keep his law license, it will hurt him as he battles to remain a licensed attorney.
His licenses to practice law in New York and Washington have been suspended since 2021.
Mr. Giuliani defended himself before the bar’s disciplinary committee in December. He argued that there were widespread irregularities with mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania and said President Trump’s poll watchers were not allowed proper access to watch the vote counting.
“My role was to show how Pennsylvania involved the same set of eight or 10 suspicious actions — illegal actions, whatever you want to call them, irregular actions — that could not be the product of accident,” he said on the witness stand.
The matter is expected to go before the bar’s nine-member Board on Professional Responsibility and then to the D.C. Court of Appeals.
The Washington Times reached out to an attorney for Mr. Giuliani for comment and did not hear back.
The Trump campaign filed more than 60 election lawsuits after the former president lost the 2020 election, but none resulted in a win.
The D.C. Bar considered Mr. Giuliani’s previous public service but said his behavior following the 2020 presidential election was so egregious, it overshadowed his previous achievements.
“We have considered in mitigation Mr. Giuliani’s conduct following the September 11 attacks as well as his prior service in the Justice Department and as mayor of New York City. But all of that happened long ago,” they wrote.
“The misconduct here sadly transcends all his past accomplishments. It was 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.”
