Rudy Giuliani Disbarred in Washington Over 2020 Election Response

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

Rudy Giuliani, the embattled former adviser to former President Donald Trump, has been disbarred in Washington following a disciplinary board’s criticisms of his reactions to the 2020 presidential election.

A three-judge panel on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ordered Giuliani’s disbarment on Sept. 26. The brief order noted, among other things, Giuliani’s disbarment in the state of New York, where an appeals court similarly accused Giuliani of making “demonstrably false and misleading statements to the courts, lawmakers, and the public at large.”

The case came before Judges Eric T. Washington, Roy McLeese, and Joshua Deahl. In June 2023, the District of Columbia Bar’s Board on Professional Responsibility issued a report stating that Giuliani “claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it.”

The board added that while it considered Giuliani’s “conduct following the September 11 attacks as well as his prior service in the Justice Department and as Mayor of New York City,” it said “all of that happened long ago.”

His conduct during the 2020 presidential election “transcends all his past accomplishments,” the board said, adding, “It was unparalleled in its destructive purpose and effect.”

Legal Battles

Giuliani’s law licenses in Washington and New York were suspended in 2021. After the New York decision, Giuliani said: “America is not America any longer. We do not live in a free state. We live in a state that’s controlled by the Democrat Party, by [New York Gov. Andrew] Cuomo, by [New York City Mayor Bill] de Blasio, and the Democrats.”

Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani, called the Sept. 26 appeals court decision “an absolute travesty and a total miscarriage of justice.”

Giuliani has argued that he believed that the claims he was making on behalf of the Trump campaign were true.

“Members of the legal community who want to protect the integrity of our justice system should immediately speak out against this partisan, politically motivated decision,” Goodman said in a text message.

Giuliani, 80, is currently facing financial ruin and legal challenges related to the 2020 election.

He has pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges in the Arizona case alleging that he spread false claims of election fraud there after the 2020 election. He has separately been charged in Georgia along with Trump and other allies of the former president with trying to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.

A jury last year awarded two Georgia election workers $148 million in damages in a defamation suit they brought against Giuliani.

Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department official during the Trump administration, similarly faced disciplinary proceedings over his role in the administration’s response to the 2020 election.

In an Aug. 1 report, a three-member panel of the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility said that Clark “attempted dishonesty and did so with truly extraordinary recklessness.”

Giuliani also reached a last-minute deal in his bankruptcy case in August. After the dismissal of his bankruptcy case in Washington, the two election workers filed a motion seeking control over his assets.

According to the filing, Giuliani disclosed that his New York apartment was valued at $5.6 million and his Florida condo at $3.5 million. The former Trump adviser also testified that the Trump 2020 campaign and Republican National Committee owed him “about $2 million.”

The Aug. 30 filing repeatedly noted Giuliani’s refusal to cooperate with court orders.

In his financial filings, Giuliani said he had about $94,000 cash on hand at the end of May, while his company, Giuliani Communications, had about $237,000 in the bank. A main source of income for the 80-year-old former mayor has been a retirement account with a balance of a little more than $1 million in May, down from nearly $2.5 million in 2022.

The Associated Press, Tom Ozimek, and Matt McGregor contributed to this report.