ATLANTA – An appeals court suspended Rudy Giuliani from attorney in New York for making false statements in trying to get courts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the presidential race.
An attorney disciplinary committee, in its motion to suspend Giuliani’s license, said there was “undisputed evidence” that Giuliani made false statements in courts, the public and lawmakers in promoting theories that the election was stolen by fraud.
“This country is being torn apart by ongoing attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 elections and our current President Joseph R. Biden,” the committee wrote. “The hallmark of our democracy is based on free and fair elections. False statements intended to fuel a loss of confidence in our elections, and the resulting loss of confidence in the government, generally harm the proper functioning of a free society. “
The ruling, signed on Thursday, will prevent Giuliani from representing clients as a lawyer.
Channel 2’s Richard Elliot received a copy of the ruling citing Giuliani’s actions in Georgia after the November elections as the reason for the suspension.
The verdict said Giuliani repeated numerous false and misleading statements to lawmakers and the public about the results of Georgia’s presidential elections. These statements … were all knowingly made with the aim of questioning the correctness of the vote. Respondent’s general allegation, without submitting any documentary support to this court, that he had relied on “hundreds of pages of affidavits and statements in [respondent’s] Possession of this document gross irregularities … ‘will not be sufficient to refute the specific findings that he knowingly provided false information. “
The verdict also discussed how Giuliani made false claims that underage voters voted illegally.
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“(Giuliani) claimed that 65,000 or 66,000 or 165,000 underage voters illegally voted in Georgia’s 2020 elections. The Georgia Office of the Secretary of State conducted an investigation into this claim. It compared the list of everyone who voted in Georgia with their full birthdays. The test showed that there were zero (0) underage voters in the 2020 elections, ”the verdict said.
Giuliani’s claims that more than 2,500 felons voted in the elections are also false. It also related to his claim that in Georgia he “had the names of 800 dead who voted based on the number of people who died in 2020. The respondent also stated that this number really went into the thousands. Elsewhere he claimed that 6,000 dead voted.
The verdict stated: “The claim of thousands of dead voters is wrong. Likewise, the respondent’s claim of 800 dead voters. “
The Georgia State Department office released a statement Thursday stating:
“The judges realized that the baseless conspiracy theories repeated by Giuliani were not true and punished him for spreading lies, particularly about the election in Georgia. This decision underpins my own statements about the fairness and correctness of the elections in Georgia. I hope they will show the same concern about any attorneys who may be spreading disinformation about the new electoral law in Georgia. “
Giuliani’s lawyers said in a statement that it was “unprecedented” for Giuliani to be suspended before “a hearing is granted on the alleged issues”.
“We believe that once the issues are fully investigated at a hearing, Mr. Giuliani will be reinstated as a valued member of the legal profession which he has served so well in his many roles for so many years,” wrote attorneys Barry Kamins and John Leventhal.
Giuliani was the main mouthpiece for Trump’s lies after the 2020 election when he stood at a press conference outside Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside of Philadelphia on the day the race for Biden was declared and said they would do the like he claimed to question the Democrats’ huge conspiracy.
The lies surrounding the 2020 election helped convince an angry crowd of pro-Trump rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop the confirmation of President Biden’s victory. And since then, Republicans have used that lie to enforce stricter electoral laws across the country.
The suspension comes as Giuliani is under investigation by federal prosecutors over his interactions with personalities in Ukraine while trying to get that country to open an investigation into Biden’s son.
Federal agents searched Giuliani’s home and office in April and took away electronic devices such as telephones and computers.
The investigation includes an investigation into whether Giuliani was required to register as a foreign agent in the United States.
This investigation was not a factor in the suspension of his lawyer license.
The suspension won’t affect Giuliani’s ability to lobby or provide security advice, but it will likely prevent him from practicing law in jurisdictions even outside of New York, said David S. Weinstein, a former federal attorney.
Giuliani would be required to report the suspension to other states, which “in all likelihood will lead them to say, ‘You will not be able to practice here'”.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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