Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred for 'harming the country,' says D.C. Bar Association counsel

Rudy Giuliani
(Image credit: Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Former U.S. Attorney and onetime New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani should have his law license revoked for "harming the country" as part of former President Donald Trump's effort to subvert and overturn the results of his 2020 electoral loss, a lawyer for the Washington D.C. Bar Association's Office of Disciplinary Counsel said on Thursday.

"It was a fundamental harm to the fabric of the country that could well be irreparable," Attorney Hamilton "Phil" Fox announced after a three-member panel found that Guiliani had likely violated at least one professional standard as part of his work to help Trump manipulate Pennsylvania's electoral results. "Any lawyer that engages in this kind of misconduct, harming the country as this has done, has at least got to realize that his or her law license is at risk."

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While Bernius stressed that the panel's decision — set to be officially submitted to the district's full Board on Professional Responsibility — was "preliminary" and "non-binding," it nevertheless represents a significant advance in the ongoing process to hold Giuliani professionally accountable for his work on Trump's behalf. Last year the New York State Bar Association suspended Giuliani's law license for making "demonstrably false and misleading statements" about the 2020 election results. His license was suspended in D.C. shortly thereafter.

The final decision on Giuliani's fate rests in the hands of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Attorney John Leventhal, who represented Giuliani during the panel hearings, has argued for the least onerous punishments, such as a written or oral reprimand. Anything more, Leventhal cautioned to NBC News, and "you're going to chill effective advocacy in the future."

Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.