The court determined that Mr. Giuliani made ‘knowing falsehoods’ regarding the 2020 election with the ’intent to deceive.’
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred over his statements contesting the 2020 election, in which then-presidential hopeful Joe Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump.
A New York appeals court says that the charges were filed after Mr. Giuliani “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to the courts, lawmakers, and the public at large” in his role as the former president’s attorney.
“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 appeals court said.
In 2021, Mr. Giuliani’s license was suspended “until further notice,” the appeals court said.
The Attorney Grievance Committee (AGC) brought “a petition of 20 charges” connected to Mr. Giuliani’s alleged “misconduct underlying his interim suspension.”
A six-day liability hearing followed in 2023, during which 16 charges were filed against the former mayor.
Mr. Giuliani’s defense, according to the appeals court, was that “he lacked knowledge that statements he had made were false and that he had a good faith basis to believe the allegations he made to support his claim that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen.”
The AGC “referee” dismissed what the appeals court called Mr. Giuliani’s “lack of knowledge-good faith defense,” instead countering that he made “knowing falsehoods” with the “intent to deceive.”
“Moreover, regarding four of the proven charges, the Referee found that because the knowing falsehoods were made under oath, respectively to certain state legislators, courts and the AGC, these acts of professional misconduct also constituted violations of the Penal Law provisions against perjury,” the appeals court said.
The AGC pointed to a November 2020 press conference at the Republican national headquarters during which Mr. Giulani claimed that voters from Camden, New Jersey, were brought to Philadelphia to vote illegally.
‘No Evidence’
Mr. Giuliani admitted he had no evidence to support the claim of voter bussing and first heard the story in the late 1970s.
