Giuliani loses law license over false claims of fraud in Georgia election
ATLANTA — New York’s highest court has suspended the law license of Rudy Giuliani, former President Trump’s personal lawyer, in large part because of false statements Giuliani made about last year’s Georgia election results.
The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court ruled that Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney and ex-New York City mayor, “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 and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at re-election in 2020.”
Giuliani’s efforts on behalf of Trump included two appearances at the Georgia Capitol early last December, one in person and one virtual, at which time he rolled out witnesses and experts involved in a lawsuit to overturn election results that saw Democrat Joe Biden carry Georgia by 11,779 votes.
Witnesses claimed Georgia’s voting machines potentially switched thousands of votes in favor of Biden, while lawyers for Giuliani unveiled a surveillance video they claimed showed ballot-counting irregularities at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
Giuliani’s team also pressed state lawmakers to appoint electors to the Electoral College who would cast Georgia’s 16 votes in Trump’s favor. The Peach State’s electors met later in December and ratified Biden’s narrow win at the polls with their votes.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger praised the ruling as a further demonstration of the validity of the arguments he made discounting the fraud charges while they were swirling.
“The judges recognized that the baseless conspiracy theories Giuliani repeated were not true and punished him for spreading lies, particularly about Georgia’s election,” Raffensperger said. “This decision backs up my own statements about Georgia’s election being fair and accurate.”
The court ruling came in response to a complaint against Giuliani filed by the New York Bar Association. The suspension is interim, which gives him a chance to appeal for reinstatement.
*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from The Albany Herald can be found here ***
