July 2 (UPI) — A state court stripped former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani of his law license Tuesday over his efforts to help subvert and overturn the 2020 election.
The New York Appellate Division ruled to disbar Giuliani “effective immediately” saying he made “demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers, and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer” for former President Donald Trump and his 2020 presidential campaign.
“The seriousness of respondent’s misconduct cannot be overstated,” the 31-page ruling by the New York panel said. Giuliani, it states, “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.”
Giuliani was admitted to New York’s bar in 1969 but had his state license to practice law suspended in 2021 over his work to overturn the election, and likewise suspended in Washington.
Giuliani has claimed that at the time he did believe the false statements that he made, while the court’s ruling says “there is nothing on the record” to suggest that is true.
“On the contrary, the 16 acts of falsehoods carried out by respondent were deliberate and constituted a transparent pattern of conduct intended and designed to deceive,” the ruling stated.
He has been ordered to “desist and refrain” from acting in any way as a lawyer, according to the ruling.
Giuliani’s political advisor Ted Goodman told The Hill that the former mayor intends to appeal the decision.
“Members of the legal community who respect the rule of law in this country should immediately come forward and speak out against this politically and ideologically corrupted decision,” Goodman said. “We will be appealing this objectively flawed decision in hopes that the appellate process will restore integrity into our system of justice.”
A federal judge in April dismissed Giuliani’s bid for new trial after he was found guilty of making false statements about a pair of Georgia election workers and slapped with a $148 million defamation judgment against him.
Giuliani, at one point U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, in December filed bankruptcy stemming from the Georgia case, citing debts as much as $500 million as his legal battles continue to mount.
In May, the former New York City mayor’s 80th birthday party in Palm Beach, Fla., attended by Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, got interrupted when Giuliani was served with a notice of indictment in the alleged plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Arizona.
Giuliani, along with 17 other Trump allies and alleged fake electors, pleaded not guilty in May in a Maricopa County, Ariz., court after getting charged in April for their alleged involvement to overturn Arizona’s 2020 election results.