A panel of five New York appeals court judges this week unanimously disbarred former President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, over statements he made about election illegalities in the 2020 presidential election.
The opinion from the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division, First Judicial Department relied on ethics rules used to target conservative attorneys: “engag[ing] in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation,” “engag[ing] in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice,” and “engag[ing] in any other conduct that adversely reflects on the lawyer’s fitness as a lawyer.”
Giuliani, whose law license was previously suspended indefinitely in June 2021 for the same reason, reacted to the disbarment on X.
He said, “We have the evidence and the courts still haven’t heard our case, despite what the fake news media says” and another post that day said, “The bar association is corrupt.”
“The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election was stolen,” he added. “They used existing methods of cheating & took advantage of new mail-in voting laws. They amplified lies about one of the candidates & censored one side of the partisan political aisle. They’ll do anything to maintain control.”
The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election was stolen.
They used existing methods of cheating & took advantage of new mail-in voting laws.
They amplified lies about one of the candidates & censored one side of the partisan political aisle.
They'll do anything to maintain control. https://t.co/tTVJgNiABj
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) July 4, 2024
He criticized both state bars and the judges, too on X.
“I’m not surprised that I’ve been disbarred by a Bar Ass’n which is a politically and ideologically integral part of the Democrat one party corrupted court system for a long time,” he said. “Judges, like Merchan and Engoron in NYC are selected by local Democrat bosses. These judges, just like in a one party Communist dictatorship, are not really elected but selected by the Democrat local bosses and often run unopposed.”
I’m not surprised that I’ve been disbarred by a Bar Ass’n which is a politically and ideologically integral part of the Democrat one party corrupted court system for a long time.
Judges, like Merchan and Engoron in NYC are selected by local Democrat bosses. These judges, just…
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) July 2, 2024
Besides his brief work for Trump regarding the 2020 election, which appeared to consist of not much more than some public statements about the election illegalities, Giuliani hadn’t practiced law in New York since 1992.
Almost the entire 31-page opinion disbarring Giuliani focused on those public statements, not any actual work in a courtroom or pleadings he filed. The justices summarized that Giuliani “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers, and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump …[which were] made to improperly bolster respondent’s narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client.”
The opinion did not rely on court cases that found no evidence of election fraud since almost every case litigated regarding the 2020 election illegalities did not consider any evidence but instead dismissed the lawsuits based on standing, laches, and other technicalities. When the courts did consider 32 cases on the merits, Trump and/or the Republican plaintiff prevailed in 24 of them. Instead, the justices appeared to decide the claims of election wrongdoing themselves in their opinion, basing it upon the recommendations of the referee for the attorney discipline board, who made findings for them to consider.
The disbarment opinion claimed Giuliani lied when he said thousands of noncitizens voted in Arizona’s 2020 election. The justices provided no evidence showing this statement was false.
A study from 2014 published at Old Dominion University found that enough noncitizens vote “to change important election outcomes, ”including “Electoral College votes and Senate races.” In the 2008 presidential race, almost 15 percent of noncitizens voted.
Greg Blackie, deputy director of policy for the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, said because of a settlement Arizona made with the far-left group LUCHA ending the requirement of asking for proof of citizenship, the number of non-citizens illegally voting in Arizona went from 1,600 in 2018 to 11,600 in 2020 — more than Trump lost to Joe Biden by in the state.
Just Facts investigated the 2020 presidential election and found an even higher number: 51,081 non-citizen votes were cast for Biden in Arizona, with a margin of error of 17,689. USA Today attempted to fact-check the research and concluded that it was “plausible but unproven.”
Guiliani was accused of stating another false statement during a press conference in Philadelphia regarding a legendary deceased boxer, “I know this city has a sad history of voter fraud. After all, Joe Frazier is still voting here, kinda hard since he died five years ago.”
The justices claimed that votes weren’t cast for Frazier after he died in 2011 but did not address the accusations Giuliani based them on, which were covered by Big Trial. Ralph Cipriano, who is a writer at the site, said that the City of Philadelphia used to have an internal database employees could access called the “Voter Inquiry Menu.”
Cipriano displayed a screenshot purportedly from that database showing a vote in the 2018 election from Frazier. Cipriano said authorities would not discuss the matter with him and instead removed employee access. He said multiple city employees contacted him after discovering their own deceased relatives allegedly voted, along with multiple deceased celebrities, between 2015 and 2019.
The justices dismissively referenced a “blogger” who addressed the Frazier controversy but did not identify Cipriano, Big Trial, or any of the evidence in the article.
Giuliani was accused of falsely stating in court depositions during March and September 2022 that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called the 2020 election “perfect.” The opinion relied on statements Raffensperger made where he said no election was “perfect.”
However, Raffensperger appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation during an interview before Giuliani’s depositions on January 9, 2022, where he defended the election using similar terms.
“I think that we have shown that Georgia has fair and honest elections. … In fact, we were just recognized by Heritage as the number one state for election integrity,” he said.
The opinion did not reference the interview.
The justices said Giuliani lied when he said during a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, “Unless you’re stupid, you knew that a lot of people were coming over from Camden to vote. They do every year. It happens all the time in Philly.” However, the court cited no investigation or evidence proving whether the accusation was accurate or false. Camden is located in New Jersey.
The justices said Giuliani lied when he told state legislators in Philadelphia that thousands of votes were cast in the names of dead people. Their opinion did not mention the lawsuit filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation against Pennsylvania, alleging that at least 22,000 dead people were on the voter rolls. PILF noted that “hundreds of these registrants showed post-death voting credits for the 2016 and/or 2018 elections.” The state settled with PILF in August 2021 and agreed to clean up its rolls.
The opinion claimed that Giuliani lied when he said regarding Philadelphia, that “an extraordinary number of voter fraud convictions … stood as evidence of endemic election fraud in that city.” Giuliani made the claim four times, including during a court appearance and while testifying before Philadelphia and Missouri legislators.
A search of a voter fraud database provided by the Heritage Foundation produced 20 voter fraud convictions in Pennsylvania before Giuliani first made the claim in 2020. The opinion admitted there were 14 voter fraud convictions in Pennsylvania between 2013 and 2022. The justices said Giuliani explained that he meant his statement in comparison to New York City, where there was only one voter fraud conviction during that time period. However, the justices said the referee found it a “falsehood designed to deceive his listeners.”
The court said Giuliani “falsely and dishonestly asserted” that a USPS contractor from Bethpage, New York, drove a truck full of ballots to Pennsylvania. The justices dismissed the sworn affidavit from truck driver Jesse Morgan due to “a forgery conviction and parole violations” and cited a news article that described him as a “persistent liar.” However, the court did not investigate its own to determine the truth.
Morgan said during a press conference, “In total I saw 24 gaylords, or large cardboard containers of ballots, loaded into my trailer. These gaylords contained plastic trays, I call them totes or trays of ballots stacked on top of each other. All the envelopes were the same size. I saw the envelopes had return addresses… They were complete ballots.”
USPS issued a report about the allegations, claiming that Morgan must have identified the wrong trailer number but admitting that a contractor in Rochester, New York, printed 650,000 general election ballots that went to Pennsylvania. The justices pointed to that report as evidence that the claim must be false.
The opinion said Giuliani lied when he said the fraud was revealed in a video of two election workers at State Farm Arena in Georgia, a mother and daughter, appearing to bring out large containers of ballots from underneath a table after observers had gone home. The two workers sued him for defamation, and Giuliani declared bankruptcy after a jury awarded them $148 million. The mother was recorded after the incident, appearing to admit wrongdoing, but has not been prosecuted.
The justices said Giuliani lied when he said Dominion Voting Machine systems yielded fraudulent results in Georgia’s 2020 election. They cited the referee’s finding that Giuliani made the statements after Attorney General Bill Barr announced on December 1, 2020, that there was no widespread fraud in the election. However, Barr refused to let U.S. attorneys investigate whether there was fraud in the election, turning down their requests to investigate it. The opinion also dismissed testimony from Garland Favorito of VoterGA, one of the top election integrity investigators in the country, because his “videos, which were played at the hearing, had no soundtrack so nothing could be heard.”
The justices claimed that Giuliani lied when he said thousands of dead people voted in Georgia’s 2020 election. Giuliani said he relied on an affidavit from Bryan Geels, which found 10,315 dead voters. Geels is a CPA with experience in data analytics. The court dismissed Geels’ findings since he based it on public records, not death notices, used birth years instead of birth dates, and indicated there “could have been false positives.” The court provided no evidence that Geels’ numbers were incorrect.
The opinion said Giuliani lied when he said thousands of felons voted in Georgia’s 2020 election. Giuliani said he relied on Geels’ affidavit again, which found that as many as 2,560 felons voted. The justices provided no proof that this was inaccurate other than testimony from a single person named Ryan Germany, an attorney for Raffensperger, who claimed only 74 felons voted.
The justices said Giuliani lied when he said thousands of minors cast ballots in Georgia’s 2020 election. Giuliani relied again on Geels’ affidavit, which found that 66,247 individuals registered to vote while underage. The justices provided no proof refuting this, merely citing Germany’s testimony again, which asserted that zero minors voted.
The opinion said Giuliani lied when he said trucks delivered ballots in garbage receptacles and paper bags during Michigan’s 2020 election. It said Giuliani listed three people whose testimony he relied upon and a video by The Gateway Pundit. The opinion cited no evidence to refute Giuliani’s claim but nitpicked details, such as pointing out that the video didn’t “include the time or place of its making.”
Giuliani was accused of lying when he said over 1,000 people admitted in recordings to committing fraud in the 2020 election. He corrected himself later to clarify that he “meant to say that he had ‘records’ of people ‘concerning’ or ‘alleging’ fraud and that he had not meant to say, tape recordings,’” the opinion said. The justices provided no evidence showing the claim was false.
A poll issued in December 2023 from Rasmussen Reports found that over 20 percent of voters admit they committed fraud in the 2020 election. Fraud includes filling out a ballot for a family member or friend if there are no legally permitted exceptions.
Giuliani said that 2,000 affidavits attesting to firsthand knowledge of fraud had been filed in court cases brought in support of Trump’s reelection. The opinion said this wasn’t true and claimed only “564, with 314 having been filed more than once, which brought the total number of affidavit filings to 878.”
However, many election challenges were dismissed before the plaintiffs were allowed to provide affidavits. Many plaintiffs around the country compiled thousands of affidavits from voters who were disenfranchised specifically to be filed in the lawsuits, only to discover later that they were never used since the judges found a way to dismiss them based on a technicality.
The opinion accused Giuliani of falsely stating that a report provided to Rafffensperger found Georgia’s 2020 election “very disturbing” and included support for evidence of fraud. Giuliani was referencing a report produced for the State of Georgia by Seven Hills Strategies, which contained a long list — 16 pages of bullet points — of alleged illegal activity observed from November 2 through November 7. The opinion provided no evidence to discredit the report but pointed to Giuliani backtracking once he was questioned about it.
Most of the opinion failed to refute Giuliani’s allegations of fraud but instead nitpicked statements by Giuliani, such as when he said he no longer could recollect or backtracked or the justices asserted that he failed to produce more evidence.
An aggravating factor that led to the disbarment was Giuliani’s “‘intemperate and defiant’ behavior during the hearing.”
Giuliani argued that the investigation violated his First Amendment right to free speech. He also said “he was denied due process when the Referee denied his request to delay the hearing to permit him to call numerous witness who were under indictment or investigation,” the opinion said.
Four of the five justices are labeled as Democrats on official sites. The fifth, Associate Justice Cynthia Kern, previously worked as a legal secretary for former New York Supreme Court Justice Joan Lobis, one of the founding members of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights.
In New York, the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), which is a voluntary organization, does not oversee the discipline of attorneys. Instead, the state judiciary does. In America, there are 31 mandatory state bars, which generally oversee attorney discipline. In the remaining states with voluntary bars, discipline is left to the judiciary or a state agency. The NYSBA removed Giuliani from its membership in June 2021, but since it is a voluntary organization with no power over his license to practice law, the effect on Giuliani was minimal.
Giuliani is being prosecuted in Georgia and Arizona on similar grounds and is undergoing disciplinary proceedings by a D.C. Bar disciplinary panel.
According to The New York Times, Giuliani’s lawyer, Barry Kamins, said he is considering his appeal options. If the U.S. Supreme Court decides to accept certiorari, attorney discipline can be appealed.
According to Cornell Law School, certiorari is when a higher court reviews a lower court’s decision.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on X / Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Rudy Guiliani” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
