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When it comes to the lawyers in Donald Trump’s orbit who are facing rather serious challenges, there are a handful of categories. There are, for example, the former president’s attorneys who are facing unpleasant scrutiny from the special counsel’s office as part of its ongoing criminal investigation. There’s also at least one Trump lawyer whose work is currently being used against his own client.
But let’s not forget the attorneys from Trump’s team who are also dealing with disciplinary issues. L. Lin Wood, for example, retired this week to preempt a process that might very well have led to his disbarment. Similarly, John Eastman, who played a leading role in the scheme to try to keep Trump in power despite his defeat, is currently facing 11 disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California, and it’s entirely possible that he’ll soon be disbarred. Jeffrey Clark, a highly controversial assistant attorney general in Trump’s Justice Department, is also facing possible disciplinary action from the District of Columbia Bar in response to the Republican lawyer’s post-2020-election efforts.
And then, of course, there’s Rudy Giuliani. Politico reported this afternoon:
A Washington, D.C.-based bar discipline committee concluded Friday that Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred for “frivolous” and “destructive” efforts to derail the 2020 presidential election in support of former President Donald Trump. ... The committee, comprised of D.C. attorneys tasked with reviewing Giuliani’s conduct, deliberated for months after a weeks-long series of hearings that featured testimony from Giuliani and several of his close associates.
The former New York City mayor, as part of this process, concocted a series of outlandish excuses for his alleged misconduct. Not surprisingly, they didn’t prove persuasive.
“He claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it,” the three-member panel declared in a 38-page decision. “By prosecuting that destructive case Mr. Giuliani, a sworn officer of the Court, forfeited his right to practice law.”
The same panel acknowledged some of the more worthwhile parts of Giuliani’s earlier record before concluding, “The misconduct here sadly transcends all his past accomplishments. It was unparalleled in its destructive purpose and effect. He sought to disrupt a presidential election and persists in his refusal to acknowledge the wrong he has done.”
This is not the final word on the subject — as Politico’s report added, his ultimate disbarment will be decided by the D.C. Court of Appeals — but given today’s findings, Giuliani has no reason to be optimistic about his professional future.
Complicating matters, of course, is the scope of his flailing career.
A New York appeals court has already suspended Giuliani’s law license, concluding that he made “demonstrably false and misleading” statements about the 2020 election while serving as Trump’s lawyer. Giuliani’s law license in D.C. was suspended soon after.
Giuliani has also received attention from Jack Smith’s office; he was recently smacked with discovery sanctions; he’s facing a credible defamation lawsuit from former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss; and he's facing another credible defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.
Or put another way, Giuliani’s professional life has gone from bad to worse, and the floor may yet drop further.