Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani Disbarred in State Over Election Lies
Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is barred from practicing law in New York for repeatedly lying about widespread voter fraud in his efforts to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election — the most severe professional punishment to date for the man once known as “America’s mayor.”
The attorney grievance committee for the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, which governs attorney conduct, disbarred Giuliani in an order handed down Tuesday, effective immediately. Giuliani was admitted to New York’s bar in 1969.
Giuliani has faced professional discipline in New York and D.C. in connection with the role he played in trying to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential race. Tuesday’s decision cites one instance, among many, on Nov. 25, 2020, in which Giuliani falsely claimed to Pennsylvania state legislators that thousands of votes were cast in the names of dead people in Philadelphia.
In another example, Giuliani falsely claimed to Arizona state legislators that tens of thousands of non-U.S. citizens voted in the 2020 presidential election in the state.
The committee noted that Giuliani argued he made the allegations on a “good faith basis.” In other words, he claims he didn’t know the statements were false. But Giuliani’s defense didn’t sway the committee.
“There is nothing on the record before us that would permit the conclusion that [Giuliani] lacked knowledge of the falsehood of the numerous statements that he made, and that he had a good faith basis to believe them to be true,” the decision said.
The committee found that Giuliani communicated “demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public” in connection with Trump’s reelection bid.
Giuliani, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District before later being elected mayor of New York City in 1993, was among the first of Trump’s 2020 attorneys to face professional consequences. Roughly six months after a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a New York disciplinary committee suspended Giuliani’s license to practice law in the state.
In May, a disciplinary board for the Washington, D.C., bar concluded Giuliani should be disbarred in the nation’s capital for his 2020 efforts. Giuliani testified before the board’s committee that he did the best he could do “under the circumstances.”
Giuliani joins a slew of other former Trump attorneys and allies facing professional or criminal consequences (or both, in Giulini’s case) related to their efforts to help Trump overturn the election. The former president faces two criminal indictments but has yet to stand trial.
Read more about the order here.
Read more about the professional discipline against Giuliani and others here.