DC Bar panel recommends Giuliani be disbarred

A preliminary report from the D.C. Bar Association recommends that former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani be disbarred over his efforts to challenge the 2020 election.

The report, released Friday by a committee assembled to review his conduct, determine that Giuliani “seriously undermined the administration of justice” by bringing 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.”

The report is not a final determination but is nonetheless a blow to Giuliani as he fights to retain his law license after a December hearing. The matter will next go to the bar’s Board on Professional Responsibility and then to the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Ted Goodman, a spokesman for Giuliani, said the DC bar was persecuting the former mayor on “behalf of the permanent corrupt regime in Washington.”

“This is also part of a larger effort to deny President Trump effective counsel by persecuting Mayor Giuliani—objectively one of the most effective prosecutors in American history,” Goodman said. 

The Trump campaign brought more than 60 lawsuits after former President Trump lost the 2020 election, failing to score a victory in any of them.

Many of them have since become the basis for professional responsibility reviews for several other Trump attorneys. Jenna Ellis was censured by the Colorado Supreme Court, while a Texas judge tossed a similar review into Sidney Powell. 

The D.C. Bar panel likewise weighed Giuliani’s prior public service but determined it did not outweigh his conduct in the aftermath of the presidential election.

“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.”

This story was updated at 5:44 p.m.