He no longer has the right to exercise the law until further notice. Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been suspended by the New York State Supreme Court for making a series of false statements about the results of the US presidential election. He has not yet been struck off the New York Bar, which is a different procedure.
🔴 Breaking: Rudy Giuliani’s legal license suspended on appeal for his false statements about the election for the benefit of his client Donald Trump. He is no longer licensed to practice in New York State. pic.twitter.com/RK2Jclhwtp
– Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) June 24, 2021
After the American presidential poll of November 3, 2020, Rudy Giuliani became the symbol of Donald Trump’s fight to try to invalidate, without presenting tangible elements, the results of the election, which gave his opponent Joe Biden the winner. . The former mayor of New York (1994-2001), now 77 years old, pleaded unsuccessfully before the courts of several key states to obtain the annulment of the poll.
About ten false statements
The Court’s decision (pdf here) lists a dozen false statements, some made in court, and others, in his Rudy Common Sense podcast or at a press conference, including one at the Four Seasons landscaping and another alongside lawyer Sidney Powell .
Giuliani notably claimed that hundreds of thousands of excess mail-in ballots had been sent to Pennsylvania, that thousands of minors and deceased people had voted in Georgia, that thousands of votes had been counted twice, or that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants voted in Arizona. Most of these claims have been contradicted by official audits, and Donald Trump’s lawyer has provided no credible evidence to prove his claims.
“Erode confidence in our elections”
“We can only insist on the seriousness of the faults” of Rudy Giuliani, wrote the Court in a decision rendered Thursday. “This country is ravaged by attacks aimed at the legitimacy of the 2020 election and of our current president, Joseph R. Biden”, continued the five magistrates who compose it. “The false statements are aimed at eroding confidence in our elections and in the government in general,” the ruling states. When they are made by a lawyer, they “tarnish the reputation of the whole profession”.
Finally, the Court also cited the events of January 6, during which rioters, mostly supporters of Donald Trump, invaded the Capitol in Washington. For the magistrates, they show “the extent of the damage that can occur when the public is deceived by false information about the election”.
For Donald Trump’s legal teams, the trouble has only just begun. A Detroit judge has called a hearing set for July 7 to decide on possible sanctions against lawyers for the former president accused of lying in court, including Sydney Powell. The latter is also sued for defamation by the manufacturer of voting machines Dominion Systems, which claims more than a billion dollars.