The US presidential election on November 5 is fast approaching. And yet, the ripples of the last presidential election in 2020, which culminated in an insurrection and led to many people denying the election happened, are still being felt.
In the latest development, a federal appeals court on September 23 disqualified Rudy Giuliani from running in Washington DC for his efforts to discredit the 2020 election results and block the transfer of power after then-President Donald Trump lost the election.
The decision was taken by a panel of three judges of the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. According to The Hill report, all the judges ruled that Giuliani, a longtime Trump ally, should lose his license to practice law. The decision taken by the judges came after the disciplinary board associated with the DC Bar recommended Giuliani’s dismissal in May.
“We have concluded that disbarment is the only penalty that will protect the public, the courts, and the integrity of the legal profession, and will deter other lawyers from making similar unfounded claims in search of such broad but wholly inappropriate relief,” the disciplinary board wrote in May.
The judges specifically pointed to Giuliani’s involvement in attempting to overturn the election result in Pennsylvania, though they had “no credible evidence that such a scheme existed.”
Giuliani was involved in other efforts with Trump to change the election results. The lawyer, along with Trump, is accused of interfering with elections in Georgia and Arizona. In addition, he is named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election fraud case against the former president.
Giuliani was expelled from New York earlier this year for his efforts to keep Trump in power in 2020.
The infamous lawyer filed for bankruptcy last December after he was ordered to pay a $148 million fine to two Georgia election workers whom he accused of fraud without any evidence. But that bankruptcy was eventually dismissed; his appeal against the defamation verdict is ongoing, according to The Hill.
Giuliani’s political consultant Ted Goodman, speaking on his dismissal, called it a “complete failure of justice”.
“Members of the legal community who want to protect the integrity of our justice system must immediately speak out against this partisan, politically motivated decision,” Goodman said. “Those who come after Mayor Giuliani cannot take away from the fact that he remains the most effective prosecutor in American history, who has done more to improve the lives of others than almost any other American alive today.”