Rudolph W. Giuliani — the former mayor of New York, top federal prosecutor and a longtime ally of former President Donald J. Trump — has been disbarred from the practice of law, a New York State appellate court ruled on Tuesday.
The ruling punctuated the downfall of a disgraced lawyer who once portrayed himself as a crusader for law and order, challenged mob bosses and Wall Street operators and, after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, became, for many, a national hero.
Mr. Giuliani, 80, has filed for bankruptcy, faces indictment in Arizona and Georgia in election cases and owes $148 million to two Georgia election workers stemming from a judgment in a defamation lawsuit.
The 31-page order banning Mr. Giuliani from practicing law in New York focused on his work as the personal lawyer for Mr. Trump and his failed effort at re-election in 2020. It said Mr. Giuliani was being disciplined for lies he told in numerous forums that were “designed to create distrust of the elective system of our country in the minds of the citizens and to destroy their confidence in the legitimacy of our government.”
“The seriousness of respondent’s misconduct cannot be overstated,” the court said, finding Mr. Giuliani had “flagrantly misused his prominent position as the personal attorney for former President Trump and his campaign.
“He baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process,” the court said, adding that in doing so, Mr. Giuliani had “not only deliberately violated some of the most fundamental tenets of the legal profession, but he also actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant.”
One of Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers, Barry Kamins, said: “Mr. Giuliani is obviously disappointed in the decision. We are weighing our appellate options.”
Ted Goodman, a spokesman for Mr. Giuliani, called the decision “politically and ideologically corrupted.”
The ruling was praised by Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Manhattan state senator and chairman of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee. Three years ago, Mr. Hoylman-Sigal formally asked the state court system to start the process of stripping Mr. Giuliani of his law license.
Mr. Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat, said the decision sent “a powerful message to attorneys across New York State that they are admitted to the bar not just to practice law, but also to uphold it.”
Daniel C. Richman, a Columbia Law School professor who worked as a federal prosecutor when Mr. Giuliani was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in the 1980s, said, “Having proudly served long ago under a man whose integrity seemed unquestionable, I find this sad and completely deserved.”
Mr. Giuliani’s license was originally suspended by the appellate court in 2021, based on the recommendation of a disciplinary committee that found Mr. Giuliani, in steering Mr. Trump’s election challenges, had sought to mislead judges, lawmakers and the public.
The court appointed a referee in August 2023 to conduct a hearing, and the referee sustained 16 allegations against Mr. Giuliani, the appellate ruling said.
The referee found that at a Nov. 19, 2020, news conference at the Republican Party’s national headquarters, Mr. Giuliani falsely claimed that people were brought from Camden, N.J., to vote illegally in nearby Philadelphia in 2020. The referee also found that Mr. Giuliani had falsely claimed that thousands of votes were cast that year using the names of either dead or underage people in Georgia, and that thousands of felons also voted there illegally.
The ruling, issued by a five-judge panel of the court, said Mr. Giuliani’s false statements were made to bolster his story “that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client.”
Mr. Giuliani’s legal troubles continue to reverberate across the country. He has pleaded not guilty to the state criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona; in Washington, D.C., a board that oversees lawyer discipline recommended in May that he be disbarred there.
He filed for bankruptcy in New York in December after a federal jury said he owed the $148 million to the Georgia election workers he defamed while trying to help Mr. Trump overturn the 2020 results. Mr. Giuliani has said he owes $153 million to about 20 people and businesses, including lawyers who have previously worked for him.
Lawyers for his creditors have said that his bankruptcy filings have been absent, late, incomplete and inaccurate. On Monday, Mr. Giuliani asked the bankruptcy court to allow an independent trustee to take over his finances, liquidate his assets and pay his creditors. He has said he has about $11 million in assets.
Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting.
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