Giuliani faces D.C. ethics costs over 2020 election lawsuit By Reuters

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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Former New York Metropolis Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks concerning the twentieth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 assaults, throughout an look on the John Catsimatidis radio present in New York Metropolis, New York, U.S., September 10, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDer

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By Jacqueline Thomsen

(Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Rudy Giuliani “weaponized his legislation license” to press baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, a Washington, D.C., disciplinary official argued on Monday.

In opening statements earlier than a listening to committee of the D.C. Board on Skilled Duty, the town’s prime disciplinary counsel stated Giuliani breached lawyer ethics guidelines in a November 2020 lawsuit on behalf of the Trump marketing campaign in Pennsylvania.

The lawsuit, which sought to throw out votes solid within the state, was rejected by a choose. A federal appeals court docket refused to let the marketing campaign file a revised grievance.

Hamilton “Phil” Fox of the D.C. Workplace of Disciplinary Counsel instructed Monday’s panel that the previous the New York Metropolis mayor, as soon as the highest U.S. prosecutor in Manhattan, “weaponized his legislation license to carry a frivolous motion in an try to undermine the Structure.”

Giuliani’s lawyer, John Leventhal, stated his shopper mustn’t face costs as a result of the choose didn’t settle for and by no means thought-about the one model of the grievance within the Pennsylvania lawsuit that Giuliani himself signed.

Leventhal additionally faulted the choose’s causes for dismissing the Pennsylvania lawsuit and famous that the court docket didn’t sanction Giuliani over his arguments.

Giuliani was the primary witness known as on Monday. He described how he started main the Trump marketing campaign’s authorized efforts to problem the 2020 election outcomes, together with his work on the Pennsylvania lawsuit.

The listening to committee will suggest whether or not Giuliani ought to be penalized after listening to proof from either side this week.

Any self-discipline, together with suspension of Giuliani’s legislation license or disbarment, should be imposed by a D.C. court docket.

Giuliani’s New York legislation license was suspended in June 2021 after a state appeals court docket discovered that he made “demonstrably false and deceptive” statements that widespread voter fraud undermined the election.

His D.C. legislation license was briefly suspended after the New York resolution.