Washington: The District of Columbia office that polices attorneys for ethical misconduct filed charges on Friday against President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, over baseless claims he made in federal court alleging the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
In the new charges, the District’s disciplinary office alleges that Giuliani, who is a member of the DC bar, made baseless claims in federal court filings about the results of the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania.
A lawyer for Giuliani did not have an immediate comment.
The charges come a day after the US House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol had its first prime-time hearing in which it outlined evidence that Trump and his allies sought to overturn the 2020 election and incite throngs of his supporters to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Giuliani has been among Trump’s most fervent supporters, and repeatedly claimed without evidence that the election had been stolen.
The new ethics charges filed Friday by the DC Office of Disciplinary Counsel with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility center on a series of legal challenges Giuliani filed in the Pennsylvania federal court.
In legal pleadings and during oral arguments in November 2020, the complaint says Giuliani sought “extraordinary relief” from the court including an emergency order to prohibit the certification of the presidential election, an order to invalidate ballots cast by certain voters in seven counties, and other orders that would have permitted the state’s assembly to choose its electors and declare Trump the winner in Pennsylvania.
Giuliani’s reputation has also been stained by his dealings with Ukraine and he is being probed by Manhattan federal prosecutors over those business ties.
He began representing Trump, a fellow Republican and New Yorker, in April 2018 in connection with then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that documented Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
