Rudy Giuliani disbarred in D.C., months after disbarment in New York

Washington — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who represented former President Donald Trump in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, has been disbarred from practicing law in the District of Columbia, a local appeals court ruled Thursday.

Giuliani’s law license in the District of Columbia had been temporarily suspended since the summer 2021, but the one-page decision from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals orders the former federal prosecutor to be disbarred. Records show Giuliani was admitted to the D.C. Bar in 1976.

The appeals court ruled that Giuliani should be disbarred in D.C. because he had been disbarred in New York in July, citing rules of reciprocity between the two jurisdictions. The order noted that Giuliani had the opportunity “to show cause why reciprocal discipline should not be imposed” but never filed a response.

Giuliani has also been the focus of a separate disbarment proceeding in Washington. In that case, the D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility recommended in May that Giuliani lose his license for good over his efforts to reverse the election results in Pennsylvania and claims made in a federal lawsuit that elections boards there were engaged in a scheme to rig the election against Trump. President Biden won the state of Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes.

“Disbarment is the only sanction that will protect the public, the courts, and the integrity of the legal profession, and deter other lawyers from launching similarly baseless claims in the pursuit of such wide-ranging yet completely unjustified relief,” the board wrote in a report.

It said Giuliani offered “no facts” to support the claims he made about alleged voter fraud in Pennsylvania and said a “reasonable lawyer would have concluded that there was not a faint hope of success of prevailing on the argument” that state election officials engaged in a scheme to steal the Pennsylvania election.

Disciplinary proceedings against Giuliani in D.C. began June 2021 in response to a New York court’s decision to suspend him from practicing law. The court found he spread falsehoods about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election while serving as a personal lawyer to Trump and the Trump campaign.

The New York appeals court said at the time that there was “uncontroverted evidence” that Giuliani spread “demonstrably false and misleading statements” to courts, lawmakers and the public during his efforts to overturn the election results.

Giuliani’s disbarment in New York in July marked a stunning fall for the political figure, who served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and went on to oversee New York City as its mayor. Giuliani was dubbed “America’s Mayor” following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and mounted an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

His latest disbarment joins a myriad of legal issues for Giuliani arising from the unsuccessful efforts to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 election. He faces charges in Georgia and Arizona stemming from alleged efforts to reverse the outcome of the election in those two states, and has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

A federal judge also held him liable last year for defaming two former election workers in Georgia, and a jury ordered him to pay them $148 million. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy following the decision.