Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor, federal prosecutor and legal adviser to Donald Trump, was disbarred from the New York bar on Tuesday after a court found he repeatedly made false statements about Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
The Manhattan appeals court ruled against Giuliani, who New York law license suspended In 2021, due to making false statements about the election, he is no longer allowed to practice law in the state, effective immediately.
“The seriousness of the defendant’s misconduct cannot be overstated,” the decision said. “Giuliani blatantly abused his position and baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process.”
“In doing so, the defendant not only intentionally violated some of the fundamental principles of the legal profession, but also actively contributed to the national conflict that followed the 2020 presidential election, for which he is completely unrepentant,” the court wrote.
Giuliani said Tuesday he was not surprised to lose his law license in his hometown, claim for a job On social media platform X, he said the case was “based on a complaint from an activist, full of false arguments.”
The former Mafia prosecutor was admitted to the New York Bar in 1969, but before that Defending Trump’s Case in November 2020Giuliani has not appeared in court as an attorney since 1992, according to court records.
Giuliani’s spokesman, Ted Goodman, said the man he once called “America’s mayor” would appeal the “objectively flawed” decision by the state’s lower court. He called on others in the legal community to speak out against the “politically and ideologically corrupt decision.”
Giuliani’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, was more circumspect, saying his legal team was “obviously disappointed” but not surprised by the decision. He said they had “made a valiant effort” to prevent their removal from the registry but “saw the writing on the wall.”
Giuliani claimed in hearings last October that he believed the allegations he was making on behalf of the Trump campaign were true, but the court, In her decisionHe said he was not convinced.
“Contrary to defendant’s claims, there is nothing in the record before us that would permit an inference that defendant lacked knowledge of the falsity of the numerous statements he made, and that he had a good faith basis for believing them to be true,” the decision states.
Among other things, the court said it found that Giuliani “falsely and dishonestly” claimed during the 2020 presidential election that thousands of votes were cast in the names of deceased people in Philadelphia, including a ballot in the name of the late boxer Joe Frazier. The court said he also falsely claimed that people were being transported from nearby Camden, New Jersey, to vote illegally in the Pennsylvania city.
“These false statements were made to improperly support Defendant’s narrative that, due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen from his client,” the decision said.
The exclusion comes amid mounting troubles for the 80-year-old Giuliani. In May, WABC Radio has been suspended. He canceled his daily talk show because he refused to stop making false claims about the 2020 election.
Giuliani also faces the possibility of Loss of Law License in Washington.Painting in May He recommended that his name be struck off the Bar Association.although the court has the final say.
he is too Bankruptcy filed Last year after he was Ordered to pay $148 million in damages To two former Georgia election workers about the lies he spread about them that turned their lives upside down with racist threats and harassment.
Giuliani on Monday asked a federal judge to convert his bankruptcy case from reorganization to liquidation, which would mean selling most of his assets to help pay off what he owes creditors. At the end of May, he had about $94,000 in cash on hand while his company, Giuliani Communications, had about $237,000 in the bank, according to court documents.
Giuliani also faces criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona over his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
that it Accused in Georgia With making false statements and soliciting false testimony, conspiring to create false documents, and asking state legislators to violate their oath of office to appoint a replacement slate of pro-Trump electors.
arizona indictment Giuliani is accused of pressuring Maricopa County officials and state lawmakers to change Arizona’s results and encourage Republican voters in the state to vote for Trump in December 2020.
Giuliani built his public persona through his law practice, as Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor in the 1980s, when he went after mobsters, powerful people and others. His reputation for maintaining law and order helped him enter politics, governing the most populous city in the United States when it was suffering from high crime rates.
The Republican was widely praised for his success in holding the city together after the September 11 terrorist attacks, when two hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers, killing more than 2,700 people.
But after failed bids for a Senate seat and the presidency, and a lucrative career as a globe-trotting consultant, Giuliani has shed his image as a centrist who could coexist with Democrats, becoming one of Trump’s most loyal defenders.
He was the main spokesman for Trump’s false claims of election fraud after the 2020 vote, and was infamously at the Press conference in front of Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside Philadelphia saying the campaign would challenge what he alleged was a broad conspiracy by Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats.
Lies about the election results helped drive an angry mob of pro-Trump rioters to They stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, In an attempt to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.