Sonam Sheth
Thu, December 15, 2022
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
A prosecutor for the DC bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel said Giuliani should be disbarred.
Hamilton Fox said Giuliani's "misconduct" after the 2020 election was "so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again."
The DC Board of Professional Responsibility made a preliminary finding that a lawsuit Giuliani filed in 2020 violated ethics rules.
A prosecutor for the Washington DC bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel said Thursday that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's law license should be revoked.
Giuliani's "misconduct" after the 2020 election was "so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again," disciplinary counsel Hamilton Fox said.
The comments capped several days of disciplinary proceedings in which the Washington DC Board of Professional Responsibility debated imposing sanctions on Giuliani in connection to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The hearings stem from an ethics case brought by the ODC, which focuses on Giuliani's efforts to invalidate the 2020 presidential election results in Pennsylvania, when he was then-President Donald Trump's personal attorney.
The ODC accused Giuliani of violating Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct by filing a "frivolous" lawsuit seeking to throw out millions of votes in Pennsylvania and engaging in "conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice."
The Board of Professional Responsibility determined in a preliminary finding Thursday that Giuliani violated at least one ethics rule by filing the legal challenge in Pennsylvania. The decision is not binding, and the hearing committee will release consider alternative sanctions proposals before putting out a report with a final recommendation.
"The lawsuit's asking courts to deprive voters of the right to vote, that's not common politics in this country," Fox said at the hearing. "This is not politics. They're trying to ignore the will of the voters. They're trying openly to ask a judge to disqualify, at minimum, 680,000 voters."
He added that "somebody has got a put a stop to" the "notion that anything goes, it's just politics. Anything goes, you just gotta win it."
"We are trying to deter people from engaging in this kind of misconduct," Fox said, referring to the ODC's request that Giuliani be disbarred. "And this miconduct is so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again."
"The one thing we can do to try to deter it is to impose the most serious sanction that can be imposed," he continued. "It's not politics. It is part of our duty as lawyers to make sure that people don't use their law licenses to undermine the Constitution of the United States, and disbarment is the only sanction for that."
Giuliani vehemently defended himself after Fox made his comments, accusing the disciplinary counsel of engaging in a "personal attack" without presenting proper evidence.
He also told Robert Bernius, the chairman of the panel overseeing the proceedings, that Fox's statements were an "outrage."
"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. "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."
The former mayor struck a similar tone earlier in the proceedings, saying last week that he was "shocked and offended this is happening to me."
Read the original article on Business Insider
A prosecutor for the DC bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel said Giuliani should be disbarred.
Hamilton Fox said Giuliani's "misconduct" after the 2020 election was "so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again."
The DC Board of Professional Responsibility made a preliminary finding that a lawsuit Giuliani filed in 2020 violated ethics rules.
A prosecutor for the Washington DC bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel said Thursday that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's law license should be revoked.
Giuliani's "misconduct" after the 2020 election was "so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again," disciplinary counsel Hamilton Fox said.
The comments capped several days of disciplinary proceedings in which the Washington DC Board of Professional Responsibility debated imposing sanctions on Giuliani in connection to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The hearings stem from an ethics case brought by the ODC, which focuses on Giuliani's efforts to invalidate the 2020 presidential election results in Pennsylvania, when he was then-President Donald Trump's personal attorney.
The ODC accused Giuliani of violating Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct by filing a "frivolous" lawsuit seeking to throw out millions of votes in Pennsylvania and engaging in "conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice."
The Board of Professional Responsibility determined in a preliminary finding Thursday that Giuliani violated at least one ethics rule by filing the legal challenge in Pennsylvania. The decision is not binding, and the hearing committee will release consider alternative sanctions proposals before putting out a report with a final recommendation.
"The lawsuit's asking courts to deprive voters of the right to vote, that's not common politics in this country," Fox said at the hearing. "This is not politics. They're trying to ignore the will of the voters. They're trying openly to ask a judge to disqualify, at minimum, 680,000 voters."
He added that "somebody has got a put a stop to" the "notion that anything goes, it's just politics. Anything goes, you just gotta win it."
"We are trying to deter people from engaging in this kind of misconduct," Fox said, referring to the ODC's request that Giuliani be disbarred. "And this miconduct is so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again."
"The one thing we can do to try to deter it is to impose the most serious sanction that can be imposed," he continued. "It's not politics. It is part of our duty as lawyers to make sure that people don't use their law licenses to undermine the Constitution of the United States, and disbarment is the only sanction for that."
Giuliani vehemently defended himself after Fox made his comments, accusing the disciplinary counsel of engaging in a "personal attack" without presenting proper evidence.
He also told Robert Bernius, the chairman of the panel overseeing the proceedings, that Fox's statements were an "outrage."
"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. "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."
The former mayor struck a similar tone earlier in the proceedings, saying last week that he was "shocked and offended this is happening to me."
Read the original article on Business Insider
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