Rudy Giuliani disbarred in DC as part of 2020 election lies fallout

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is disbarred in Washington, DC, the district’s highest local court said Thursday, a move stemming from the ethics proceedings Giuliani faced in New York because of his efforts to help former President Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 election.

Those New York proceedings led to Giuliani losing his license to practice there this summer, and because the DC Bar has a reciprocal relationship with the New York Bar, he is now being disbarred in the district. According to the new order from the DC Court of Appeals, Giuliani did not respond to an opportunity to object to his disbarment in Washington.

Giuliani is one of multiple former Trump attorneys who faced professional disciplinary proceedings for their participation in the former president’s election reversal schemes, but for most of the other Trump lawyers, their proceedings are still ongoing.

In addition to the New York proceedings, Giuliani faces a separate track of DC Bar disciplinary proceedings – focused on another 2020 election lawsuit he was involved in seeking to throw out thousands of Pennsylvania votes – that have not yet reached their final phase.

The fallout Giuliani has faced has been particularly acute. Prosecutors in Georgia and Arizona brought criminal charges against him related to the election subversion schemes (Giuliani has pleaded not guilty in both cases). Meanwhile, two Georgia election workers obtained a $148 million defamation judgment against him for false allegations he made about them after the 2020 election.

The New York disciplinary attorney ethics proceedings against Giuliani played out mostly behind closed doors. In July, the New York Supreme Court said in its disbarment order that Giuliani “not only deliberately violated some of the most fundamental tenets of the legal profession, but he also actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 Presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant.”

In a statement Thursday, Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman said that “Members of the legal community who want to protect the integrity of our justice system should immediately speak out against this partisan, politically motivated decision.”

“The people coming after Mayor Giuliani can’t take away the fact that he remains the most effective prosecutor in American history, who did more to improve the lives of others than almost any other American alive today,” Goodman said.