A District of Columbia disciplinary panel said former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani violated ethics rules when he filed a lawsuit that challenged the 2020 election results.
The committee of the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility will recommend a specific penalty later for Giuliani, who faces accusations that he breached ethics rules against bringing frivolous lawsuits and harming the administration of justice. The panel could recommend disbarring him, suspending his D.C. law license, or formally censuring him.
Hamilton “Phil” Fox, of the District of Columbia Office of Disciplinary Counsel, said that Giuliani should be disbarred and claimed that he attempted to undermine the credibility of the 2020 General Election. Giuliani had served as former President Donald Trump’s attorney for legal challenges in several states.
“There is no question that his conduct of the events of 9/11 was admirable, more than admirable,” Fox said, referring to how Giuliani handled the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks while he was the Republican mayor of New York City. “But as you said, that was more than 20 years. And I don’t know whether something’s happened to Mr. Giuliani in the interim.”
Giuliani Response
“Mr. Chairman, I would like to personally object to Mr. Fox’s attack on me as having tried to undermine American democracy, when there’s not a single fact in the record for that argument,” Giuliani said Thursday, reported Law & Crime. “He has raised no such argument to give us a chance to rebut it during this case. It is a typical or unethical cheap attack not supported by anything in the record, far more so than anything I alleged that you are questioning.”Giuliani said that he had a “good faith belief” that something was amiss following the 2020 election. “I don’t know what happened to the defense of lawyers who take on unpopular causes,” he said.
On Thursday, Giuliani’s lawyer, John Leventhal, told the panel that punishment should be light and that “politics should not play any part, we hope, we trust in this committee’s final recommendation.” Fox disputed Leventhal’s statement.
Leventhal told the panel in closing arguments on Dec. 8 that Giuliani should not be disciplined because the judge in the Pennsylvania case did not accept and never considered the only version of the complaint that Giuliani himself signed.
Leventhal said the crux of the lawsuit was not voter fraud but social distancing restrictions imposed on election observers and policies in some counties that allowed voters to address mistakes on mail ballots.
“A reasonable attorney can make that argument without being frivolous,” he said.
Case Dismissed
Earlier in December, Giuliani offered testimony to the D.C. panel and said he has “been persecuted for three or four years, including false charges brought against me by the federal government,” Law & Crime reported.The former mayor was likely referring to the FBI’s raid targeting Giuliani’s New York apartment and office in May 2021, resulting in the seizure of several electronic devices. Last month, Giuliani learned that he would not face any charges following a federal probe into whether he engaged in illegal activity while lobbying on Trump’s behalf in Ukraine years ago.
“The Government writes to notify the Court that the grand jury investigation that led to the issuance of the above-referenced warrants has concluded, and that based on information currently available to the Government, criminal charges are not forthcoming,” prosecutors said.
The Epoch Times has contacted Giuliani’s office for comment.
