Rudy Giuliani Disbarred by New York Court Over 2020 Election Claims

Rudy Giuliani speaks to members of the media in Manchester, N.H., on Jan. 21, 2024. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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.

“However, during his September 29, 2022 deposition before the AGC, 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 appeals court said. “In his answer to the charges, respondent slightly altered his story and stated that he could not recall who told him about the purported busing in the 2020 election.”

Later, Mr. Giuliani claimed that the busing is “common knowledge” and that these methods of voter fraud take place in cities throughout the country.

Still, according to the appeals court, Mr. Giuliani couldn’t cite any arrests or convictions related to that particular voter fraud scheme, the appeals court said.

Mr. Giuliani also claimed that there was widespread voter fraud in Philadelphia, which “stood as evidence of endemic election fraud in that city.”

However, the AGC referee found Mr. Giuliani’s claims to be “not mere exaggerations, but falsehoods designed to deceive his listeners.”

RICO Charges

Mr. Giuliani now faces his own Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges in Georgia for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the 2020 election.

In April, a federal judge upheld a jury’s decision in a separate case that Mr. Giuliani must pay $148 million in damages to two election workers—Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss—in Fulton County, Georgia.

A federal judge found him liable for defamation after he claimed that the two women committed voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, a claim that Mr. Giuliani maintained.

Mr. Giuliani alleged that Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss removed ballots from suitcases hidden underneath the tables after the counting ended on election night.

The Georgia secretary of state’s office initiated an investigation in which the FBI, as well as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, found that “there was no evidence of fraud” and explained the suitcase of ballots by stating that the Fulton County Board of Elections had a process by which it stored ballot boxes underneath tables “to have them in a certain order to monitor and track ballots during the tabulation process so election workers would know where to begin the next day.”

“No evidence was provided to show that Freeman or Moss deviated from the established process,” the report stated.

Mr. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy after the jury’s 2023 decision.

In Arizona, state Attorney General Kris Mayes has recently indicted Mr. Giuliani and 17 co-defendants for allegedly conspiring to fraudulently declare former President Donald Trump as the winner in the state during the 2020 presidential election.

The Epoch Times contacted Mr. Giuliani’s legal counsel for comment but didn’t receive a reply by press time.

Chase Smith and Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.