A Washington, D.C. disciplinary board recommended stripping Rudy Giuliani of his law license for his involvement in a failed lawsuit challenging former President Donald Trump’s 2020 U.S. election loss in Pennsylvania.
Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer and previously as a top Manhattan federal prosecutor and mayor of New York City, attempted to “disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania voters without the slightest factual basis,” according to the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility in its 63-page report.
The board determined that Giuliani violated two legal ethics rules by making broad claims of voter fraud without evidence in the Pennsylvania lawsuit, which a federal judge dismissed.
Giuliani’s lawyers declined to comment. John Leventhal, a retired New York state judge representing Giuliani, argued in November that the Pennsylvania lawsuit was fundamentally flawed and that Giuliani could do little to improve it.
The D.C. Court of Appeals, which has final authority over disciplinary matters involving lawyers licensed in Washington, will now review the board’s recommendation. Known as “America’s Mayor” following the September 11, 2001, attack on New York’s World Trade Center, Giuliani saw his conduct in the Pennsylvania case overshadow “all his past accomplishments,” according to a hearing committee in July.
Additionally, Giuliani faces criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona for allegedly attempting to subvert the 2020 election results. He has pleaded not guilty to these charges.
