WASHINGTON – Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was disbarred in Washington on Thursday, months after he lost his law license in New York for pursuing false claims that then-President Donald Trump made about his 2020 presidential election loss.
The brief ruling from Washington D.C.'s appeals court said Giuliani did not respond to an order to explain why he should not be disbarred in Washington after he was in New York last summer.
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Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani, called the decision “an absolute travesty and a total miscarriage of justice.” Giuliani has argued that he believed 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.
It's the latest blow to the man once lauded as “America’s mayor." His advocacy of Trump’s false election claims has also led to criminal charges. He's also facing financial ruin after a jury last year awarded $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers who sued him for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020.
Giuliani was one of the most vocal defenders of Trump in 2020, pushing unsubstantiated claims of large-scale voter fraud in the election the Republican lost to President Joe Biden.
Giuliani previously had his law license suspended in Washington. A review panel last year recommended that he be disbarred over claims in a Pennsylvania lawsuit seeking to overturn Trump's loss there.
Giuliani “claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence,” the panel wrote.
The former Georgia election workers — Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, asked a court last month to force Giuliani to turn over his New York apartment, any remaining cash and some of his prized New York Yankees memorabilia, including three World Series rings and a signed shirt of player Joe DiMaggio.
Freeman and Moss also staked a claim to the estimated $2 million Giuliani previously said Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign owes him. They also sought to take control of another Giuliani property — his Palm Beach, Florida condominium — through another legal mechanism known as receivership.
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy shortly after the defamation verdict in December. But a judge in July threw out his case, citing failures to comply with court orders, failure to disclose sources of income and his apparent unwillingness to hire an accountant to go over his books.
Giuliani has pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges in the Arizona case alleging he spread false claims of election fraud there after the 2020 election. He's separately charged in Georgia along with Trump and other allies of the former president accused of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.