Rudy Giuliani – who served as New York City mayor and U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — has been disbarred for his "demonstrably false and misleading statements" while representing former President Donald Trump in legal challenges to the 2020 election, a Manhattan appeals court wrote on Tuesday.
Giuliani’s suspension stems from charges that he repeatedly lied to multiple agencies and legal bodies as he represented Trump following the 2020 election that both men claimed the former president won, despite certified results.
The disbarment represents a further fall from grace for Giuliani, who took on the mob as a federal prosecutor, is credited with driving down crime as mayor of New York City, and whose leadership in 9/11's immediate aftermath earned him the moniker "America's mayor."
“These false statements were made to improperly bolster respondent's narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client,” the ruling reads.
Giuliani's disbarment is effective immediately and prohibits him from practicing any form of law – including advising anyone in legal matters or working for another attorney, the ruling states.
Giuliani obtained his New York law license in 1969, nearly 50 years before the allegations that first led to his initial suspension in 2021 in connection with Trump’s failed re-election bid.
According to the ruling, the misconduct charges are largely based on a series of lies Giuliani told at different press conferences after Election Day in 2020: that people from New Jersey had been brought to vote illegally in Philadelphia, that votes were cast in the names of dead people – including the late boxing champion Joe Frazier – and that ballots had been smuggled into Pennsylvania from Bethpage, Long Island, among others.
The ruling states that Giuliani stood by his false claims during a hearing with the Attorney Grievance Committee last year, arguing that “he lacked knowledge that statements he had made were false.”
A court-appointed referee proved 16 out of 20 initial charges, according to the ruling.
Four of the charges stemmed from false statements Giuliani made under oath, according to the ruling, which means he violated the Penal Law provisions against perjury.
In issuing their decision, the referee invoked Giuliani’s long and respected career as a reason people would believe anything he said– even if it wasn’t true.
“Taking advantage of his unique position, Respondent told numerous lies in numerous forums all designed to create distrust of the elective system of our country in the minds of its citizens and to destroy their confidence in the legitimacy of our government,” read a statement in the court’s ruling. “This behavior has done immeasurable damage to our democracy.”
Attempts to reach Giuliani at multiple phone numbers were unsuccessful on Tuesday.
This is a developing story and has been updated.
