Rudy Giuliani, who was once hailed as “America’s Mayor” for his leadership after the 9/11 attacks, has been permanently disbarred from practicing law in Washington, D.C. This decision, delivered through a one-page order from the U.S. capital’s court of appeal, marks the latest fallout from his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.
The ruling follows a similar disbarment order issued in New York, Giuliani’s home state, back in July. However, unlike the New York ruling, which directly addressed Giuliani’s role in spreading false claims about the election, the D.C. court’s decision was primarily due to his failure to respond to requests to justify why he should not face the same penalty as he did in New York.
The court order read, “ORDERED that Rudolph W. Giuliani is hereby disbarred from the practice of law in the District of Columbia, nunc pro tunc [retroactive] to August 9, 2021.” The ruling essentially made his suspension, which had been in place since 2021, permanent.
In 2021, Giuliani’s law license was initially suspended in D.C. after the court was notified of his disbarment in New York. The decision came after a series of investigations revealed that Giuliani had engaged in unethical conduct by presenting inaccurate and unsupported claims to a federal court in Pennsylvania while contesting the 2020 election results.
Responding to the D.C. ruling, Giuliani’s spokesperson, Ted Goodman, criticized the decision, calling it “an absolute travesty and a total miscarriage of justice.” He urged members of the legal community to speak out against what he termed as a “partisan, politically motivated decision.”
This disbarment is the latest blow to Giuliani’s once-stellar reputation. Just last year, two Georgia election workers won $148 million in damages after successfully suing Giuliani for defamation, following his baseless accusations of election fraud against them. Shortly after, he filed for bankruptcy.
