Former President Trump’s ex-attorney Rudy Giuliani faced ethics charges Monday at a hearing committee of the DC Board of Professional Responsibility, over alleged breach of ethics rules on behalf of the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania.
The hearing stems from a November 2020 Trump campaign lawsuit. Hamilton “Phil” Fox of the DC Disciplinary Counsel said Monday that Giuliani had “weaponized his law license” to push baseless claims that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen, bringing “a frivolous action in an attempt to undermine the Constitution.”
John Leventhal, the attorney representing Giuliani, said his client should not face charges because the judge at the time never accepted Giuliani’s complaint in the Pennsylvania lawsuit, which Giuliani himself signed.
Leventhal also noted that the judge did not sanction Giuliani when dismissing the arguments.
Giuliani was the first witness called on Monday. He described how he began leading the Trump campaign’s legal efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, including his work on the Pennsylvania lawsuit.
The hearing committee will recommend whether Giuliani should be penalized after hearing evidence from both sides this week.
Any discipline, including suspension of Giuliani’s law license or disbarment, must be imposed by a Washington DC court.
Giuliani, who was Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, had his New York law license suspended in June 2021 after a state appeals court ruled he had made “demonstrably false and misleading” statements about voter fraud.
His DC law license was temporarily suspended after the New York decision.
