(CN) — Former New York City mayor, U.S. Attorney and Trump administration insider Rudy Giuliani was disbarred on Tuesday, per a unanimous ruling from a New York appellate court.
The court ordered Giuliani to cease practicing law "effective immediately," finding that he had lied to courts and the public on multiple occasions while serving as former President Donald Trump's personal attorney. The court's decision centered on how Giuliani assisted Trump's attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, finding no other attorney disciplinary cases involving false statements were "remotely comparable" to Giuliani's offenses.
"[Giuliani] flagrantly misused his prominent position as the personal attorney for former President Trump and his campaign, through which [he] repeatedly and intentionally made false statements, some of which were perjurious, to the federal court, state lawmakers, the public, the Attorney Grievance Committee, and this court concerning the 2020 Presidential election, in which he baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process," the court wrote in its 31-page order.
"In so doing, [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," the court added.
Prior to Tuesday's order, Giuliani had been suspended from practicing law in New York and Washington D.C. in 2021.
An attorney grievance committee served Giuliani with a petition outlining 20 charges in February 2023, and following a six-day hearing that October, a court-appointed referee found the committee had proven 16 of those charges. According to Tuesday's filing, Giuliani "essentially conceded" most of the facts surrounding his misconduct, but held he had not lied to lawmakers, the court or the public.
Instead, Giuliani said he genuinely believed Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
The case referee rejected this argument. They cited a news conference at the Republican National Headquarters in November 2020 when Giuliani told press he believed voters had been brought from Camden, New Jersey to vote illegally in Philadelphia.
"Unless you’re stupid, you knew that a lot of people were coming over from Camden to vote. They do every year. It happens all the time in Philly. It’s about as frequent as getting beaten up at a Philadelphia Eagle football game. Happens all the time, all the time," Giuliani said at the event.
But in a joint stipulation of undisputed facts in his attorney discipline case, Giuliani admitted to the court that he had "no evidence" that Camden residents voted illegally in Philadelphia in 2020. On further questioning, Giuliani conceded that he had heard a similar story repeated for nearly 50 years.
"Before the referee, [Giuliani] testified that he initially heard this story about Camden voters in 1977 and 1978 from an individual named Jay Waldman and that he then heard it repeated over the years. However, during his September 29, 2022 deposition before the Attorney Grievance Committee, respondent testified that he could not provide any evidence that people were bused from Camden to Philadelphia in 2020, nor did he remember anyone telling him that such busing occurred," the court wrote.
Between 2013 and 2022, the court found a total 14 confirmed cases of voter fraud in Philadelphia. While Giuliani reportedly tried to back up his concerns with an exhibit listing articles on the history of Philadelphia voter fraud, he never actually produced the listed materials. He also didn't say he knew about the materials prior to making his November 2020 statement, so the referee concluded Giuliani intentionally lied to the public.
Other lies the referee found Giuliani told included the assertion that 2020 ballots were smuggled by truck from Bethpage, New York into Pennsylvania, that thousands of non-citizens were allowed to vote in Arizona, and that there was video evidence of large-scale voter fraud in Atlanta, Georgia.
Though Georgia had recertified its election results by December 2020, confirming Joe Biden won the state, Giuliani reportedly maintained at court that the recounted votes were "altered" and therefore meaningless. The referee disagreed, finding Giuliani's claims lacked evidence.
The referee took Giuliani's long history of public service into account as a mitigating factor when rendering their disciplinary recommendation — even noting that "for many, he ... still occupies a special place in American folklore" — but ultimately concluded that disbarment was appropriate. The referee chided Giuliani for being unrepentant during his disciplinary hearings; the former New York mayor reportedly called the proceedings "completely political."
"[Giuliani] told numerous lies in numerous forums all designed to create distrust of the elective system of our country in the minds of its citizens and to destroy their confidence in the legitimacy of our government. This behavior has done immeasurable damage to our democracy," the referee wrote in their discipline recommendation. "Respondent displayed no remorse for his actions and, indeed, during the hearing, magnified his lack of contrition."
Giuliani remained unrepentant following the news of his disbarment Tuesday. He called the New York State Bar a "politically and ideologically integral part of the Democrat one party corrupted court system" in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
"The case is based on an activist complaint, replete with false arguments, a hearing officer who was a former judge from the same corrupt Democrat selection process, and a tape with almost 1/4th of the most critical parts erased and covered up by either the Chief NY Bar 'persecutor' and his staff, or the Secretary of State of Georgia," Giuliani wrote.
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