The District of Columbia Court of Appeals on Wednesday temporarily suspended Giuliani’s license pending the outcome of his disciplinary proceedings in New York, where former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney was barred from practicing over claims he made about the last presidential election.
In a scathing 33-page decision last month, the New York Supreme Court’s appellate division said Giuliani misled the public, the courts and lawmakers as he pushed the false narrative that widespread voter fraud stole the presidency from his client.
The court said Giuliani’s misconduct deepened partisan divisions in the country and inflamed tensions that led to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, when Trump supporters stormed the building to disrupt a joint congressional session to count state-certified Electoral College votes.
“The seriousness of respondent’s uncontroverted misconduct cannot be overstated,” the court said. “This country is being torn apart by continued attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election and of our current president, Joseph R. Biden.
Giuliani, a former mayor of New York and a longtime fixture in New York City politics, has been at the forefront of Trump’s failed effort to reverse his loss and is part of a coterie of attorneys who sought to invalidate results in battleground states by relying on conspiracy theories that have been disproved by state and federal courts and election security officials.
Giuliani’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. In a statement to the New York Times last month, attorneys John Leventhal and Barry Kamins said Giuliani’s suspension in New York is “unprecedented.”
“We believe that once the issues are fully explored at a hearing, Mr. Giuliani will be reinstated as a valued member of the legal profession that he has served so well in his many capacities for so many years,” the attorneys said. Giuliani was licensed in Washington, D.C. in 1976 and in New York in 1969. (Source: APP)
