Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani disbarred following criminal indictments
Rudy Giuliani – the former New York City mayor, mob prosecutor and Donald Trump ally — lost his license to practice law in his home state Tuesday.
The state appeals court’s decision immediately disbarring Giuliani and ordering “his name stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law” furthers the fall from grace for the 80-year-old once hailed as “America’s Mayor” in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.
The ruling found that Giuliani — who had his New York law license suspended in 2021 — repeatedly made false claims about the 2020 presidential election when he represented Trump and his campaign.
Giuliani “flagrantly misused” his post to make false statements “some of which were perjurious” when he “baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process,” the First Department decision reads.
He “actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 Presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant.”
Giuliani — who served as mayor from 1994 until 2001 and was beloved for his response to 9/11 — also faces two criminal indictments for allegedly interfering in the election. He filed for bankruptcy in December after being hit with a multi-million dollar judgement in a Georgia defamation case.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
New York’s Attorney Grievance Committee mounted 22 charges against Giuliani in February 2023, accusing him of lying or misleading “courts, lawmakers, and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection to Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020,” Tuesday’s ruling explains.
The disciplinary probe looked at 16 false statements made by Giuliani, including extraordinary claims he made under oath, like when he falsely told the Missouri state legislature in December 2020 that there were over 2,000 court affidavits attesting to first-hand knowledge of election fraud.
Giuliani also made claims that thousands of votes were cast by people who were either dead, felons, non-citizens or underage, that Camden, NJ residents were bussed to Philadelphia to vote illegally and that an imaginary truck from Bethpage smuggled ballots to Pennsylvania.
At his infamous Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference days after the election, Giuliani also claimed that a vote was cast in the name of late heavyweight champ Joe Frazier, who died nine years before the 2020 election.
Giuliani repeated parts of this statement four times months later in radio interviews, according to the court.
Investigators discovered he may have picked up the story from a 2018 blog post he found on the internet, the decision says.
The First Department said 16 of Giuliani’s lies were “deliberate.” The court also didn’t buy that Giuliani was unaware the statements were false when he made them.
Giuliani’s political advisor Ted Goodman said the decision was “politically and ideologically corrupted.”
“We will be appealing this objectively flawed decision in hopes that the appellate process will restore integrity into our system of justice,” Goodman said.
Giuliani also faces being disbarred in Washington DC, where his law license has been suspended.
He was admitted to the New York bar in 1969 and served as Manhattan US Attorney from 1983 through 1989, where he gained a reputation for successfully prosecuting mobsters.
Giuliani has pleaded not guilty to an election fraud case in Arizona and to the criminal charges in Georgia, in a case also accusing Trump of election fraud.
He also faces serious civil legal problems, including the $148 million judgment for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss by falsely claiming they carried out election fraud in 2020 in the Peach State.
Giuliani’s creditors in his bankruptcy case are asking a judge to appoint a trustee to oversee his financial affairs claiming the former mayor has been misusing his money that should be going to paying off his debts.
His lawyer recently disclosed that Giuliani is suffering from “possible” 9/11-related lung disease and says his age and health will make it hard for him to get work.
Giuliani lost his job on WABC, where he hosted a radio show, in May for continuing to spout on air that the 2020 election was “stolen,” breaking with company policy, according to station owner John Catsimatidis.
Giuliani’s lawyers didn’t return a request for comment Tuesday.
