DC attorney discipline board recommends Giuliani disbarment

By Tierney Sneed and Katelyn Polantz | CNN

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani is one step closer to being disbarred.

The professional responsibility board in Washington, DC, recommended Friday that the ex-New York mayor and federal prosecutor lose his law license because of his involvement in a bogus 2020 election fraud lawsuit.

Giuliani’s law license had already been suspended due to his work boosting Trump’s false assertions about his electoral loss. It is up to the DC Court of Appeals to decide whether to permanently disbar Giuliani.

“We conclude that disbarment is the only sanction that will protect the public, the courts, and the integrity of the legal profession, and deter other lawyers from launching similarly baseless claims in the pursuit of such wide-ranging yet completely unjustified relief,” the attorney discipline board wrote Friday.

The opinion follows a trial-like proceeding held by a hearing committee of the board in late 2022, which weighed the ethics charges brought by the DC Bar’s disciplinary counsel. Giuliani was accused of violating attorney conduct rules with a lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania that sought to throw out more than 1 million votes in the state, which President Joe Biden won in 2022.

The disciplinary board on Friday agreed with the committee’s findings that Giuliani had likely broken the rules.

“We agree with the Hearing Committee that the Pennsylvania litigation was based ‘only on speculation, mistrust, and suspicion,’” the opinion said.

The board concluded that Giuliani had put forward “no facts to support the claims he made and his opinion that election impropriety occurred does not meet the requirements for filing a lawsuit.”

Ted Goodman, Giuliani’s spokesperson, said in a statement the “recommendation comes as no surprise as partisan Democrats continue to destroy the credibility of the American justice system all in an effort to beat President Trump and to hold onto power.”

Giuliani is one of several attorneys who face professional misconduct proceedings for aiding Trump’s election reversal schemes.

Earlier this week, attorney Jenna Ellis saw her Colorado law license suspended for three years because of her guilty plea in the criminal 2020 election interference case brought in Georgia. John Eastman, who engineered a plot to disrupt Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results, was found by a California Bar court judge to have committed “exceptionally serious ethical violations,” and his license is suspended while the proceedings over whether he should be disbarred move forward.

This story has been updated with additional details.