- Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred in New York state for trying to boost Donald Trump’s claims of 2020 election fraud.
- The former New York City mayor and personal lawyer to President Trump was immediately stripped of his bar license.
- “The seriousness of Defendants’ misconduct cannot be overstated,” the New York Court of Appeals said in its ruling.
Rudy Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor who was once known as “America’s Mayor” and built a career going after gangsters, has been stripped of his license to practice law in his home state of New York.
A New York appeals court on Tuesday ruled that Giuliani, former personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump, should be “summarily” disbarred for trying to boost Trump’s baseless claims of 2020 election fraud.
In a 31-page decision, the appeals court said Giuliani was “effectively barred from the practice of law and his name will be removed from the rolls of the New York State bar until further order of this Court.”
The appeals court wrote that the 80-year-old former New York City mayor can no longer practice law in New York state because “as counsel for former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign, he made manifestly false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public in connection with Trump’s failed 2020 reelection campaign.”
“These false statements were made to improperly bolster defendants’ claims that widespread voter fraud resulted in victory in the 2020 United States presidential election being stolen from our client,” the court said.
He added that “the seriousness of the defendants’ misconduct cannot be overstated.”
The court wrote that Giuliani “blatantly abused his prominent position as personal attorney to former President Trump and his campaign, and defendants repeatedly and knowingly made false statements.”
The court also said the defendants had “baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of the country’s electoral process.”
“In doing so, defendants not only willfully violated some of the most fundamental tenets of the legal profession, but also actively and unrepentantly contributed to a national conflict in the wake of the 2020 presidential election,” the court wrote.
Giuliani’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a statement to Politico, Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman slammed the disbarment decision and said Giuliani would appeal.
“Anyone in the legal community who respects the rule of law in this country should immediately speak out in opposition to this politically and ideologically corrupt decision,” Goodman told Politico.
“We intend to appeal this objectively flawed sentence in the hope that the appellate process will restore the integrity of our justice system,” Goodman said.
Giuliani faces criminal charges in Arizona and Georgia for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York last year, days after a federal jury ordered him to pay $148 million to two Georgia election officials he had disgraced.
