Can Rudy Giuliani be struck off for electoral proceedings?

• Rudy Giuliani has been criticized for frivolous and dishonest litigation and is taking calls to revoke his legal license.
• Giuliani represents President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in numerous failed election prosecutions and has launched conspiracy theories on voter fraud.
• Experts say delisting is unlikely, although Giuliani could face less severe penalties from bars and state courts.
• Giuliani is at greater risk of being struck off if convicted in a case stemming from a federal investigation related to his work in Ukraine on behalf of Trump, which led to Trump’s impeachment.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

As Rudy Giuliani continues to pursue long-term lawsuits in an attempt to overthrow the will of voters and give President Donald Trump a second term, some of his critics are trying to get him deregistered.

Representative Bill Pascrell, a Democrat from New Jersey, has filed letters with the state bars of Arizona, Michigan, New York, Nevada and Pennsylvania, requesting the expungement of Giuliani and 22 other attorneys working for the Trump campaign.

He said the lawsuits – none of which have gone to court so far – violate rules prohibiting frivolous litigation, as well as “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deception or misrepresentation.”

“Mr. Giuliani’s blatant behavior to provoke Mr. Trump’s arson is a danger not only to our legal system, but also unprecedented in our national life,” Pascrell wrote.

Radiation is a difficult and rare event. The sanction no longer allows a lawyer to practice law in a particular state. Different states have different radiation standards, but they generally require you to violate the rules of professional conduct.

“As lawyers, we have an ethical obligation to bring or defend only where there is both a basis of law and of fact,” said Nicole Noonan, legal ethics commentator and founder of litigation. “Mr. Giuliani’s multitude of lawsuits may have crossed the ethical line and, in this busy political climate, could lead to the ultimate sanction for a lawyer: expungement.”

Yvonne Hemsey / Getty Images

The delisting would be a blow to Giuliani’s reputation. In the 1980s, he served as Associate Attorney General of the United States and United States Attorney General for the Southern District of New York, two of the most senior positions in the Department of Justice. Giuliani later served as New York mayor and failed presidential candidate, and began his own lobbying, advisory, and legal practices.

In recent years, Giuliani has served as President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer but rarely appears in court in person. His appearance in Pennsylvania court this month, representing one of Trump’s most high-profile election trials – which culminated in a scathing ruling by a federal judge – was his first in nearly 30 years. During that hearing, Giuliani recited to the judge several unfounded conspiracy theories about voter fraud that were of little relevance to the lawsuit he had filed.

But his conduct will not result in delisting, according to Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at New York University Law School. He is more likely to be struck with a lesser reprimand, he said.

“Even if Giuliani is disciplined, the penalty would not be as extreme as delisting,” Gillers told Insider. “Courts are more likely to impose a private reprimand, which is never public, or public censure.”

There is a high bar to remove

More often than not, deregistration is the result of a clear ethical violation, such as a lawyer cheating on a client, confusing their finances, or receiving a felony conviction. There is also a range of less severe sanctions and forms of reprimand, such as private or public reprimands or suspensions.

While legal experts and virtually all judges have concluded that Trump’s election lawsuits were without merit, judges still tend to leave a lot of leeway for creative legal arguments. These types of arguments are important for overturning precedents even when the law has not changed, such as in Thurgood Marshall’s legal battles over segregation in the 1940s and 1950s, as Bloomberg Law noted.

“If there hasn’t been a referral from the judge to the bar, it kind of becomes very delicate ground,” said Jan Jacobowitz, director of the professional responsibility and ethics program at the law school of the ‘University of Miami, at Insider. “Because at the end of the day, whether someone has a reasonable basis for making the initial complaint can be quite subjective.”

AP Photo / Julio Cortez

The road to radiation is long. The process differs from state to state, but it generally works roughly like this: there is the initial complaint, a private investigation into the merits of the complaint, and then a review by a grievance committee to determine whether the findings of the investigation are correct. At this point, a bar lawyer can “pursue” the case based on the recommendation of the grievance committee. The bar lawyer presents his case at a hearing usually supervised by a judge, during which the lawyer who receives the complaint can defend himself. The decision of this judge may also need to be approved by a high level judge.

But state agencies are unlikely to be involved in Giuliani’s situation if they are not compelled to do so, Jacobowitz told Insider, unless there are legal sanctions and a referral to court.

One of the reasons for this is that state bar agencies simply don’t have the resources to take on cases unless they absolutely are, Gillers said.

“The public has a misconception about the discipline of lawyers,” Gillers said. “The legal agencies that investigate lawyers are primarily concerned with the theft of client money and crimes committed by lawyers. The agencies are understaffed and understaffed and barely able to do this job.”

Photo AP / Jacquelyn Martin

Giuliani’s social media posts and infamous press conferences could be a risk, Jacobowitz said. And if a court finds that he lied in front of a judge, that could get him in trouble too, according to Gillers.

“If a court were to find that [Giuliani] and the other lawyers have made frivolous claims or, worse, lied to the courts, disciplinary agencies can rely on those court findings, which doesn’t require them to do a lot of extra work, ”Gillers said.

Still, Giuliani would be more likely to face some sort of reprimand rather than a strike on these matters.

“They have the power to do something less than write off, but they still make a statement,” Jacobowitz said.

Giuliani did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Reported federal investigation into Giuliani’s work could be a bigger issue

Giuliani faces bigger issues than ethical inquiries for his work in Trump’s election prosecution. He was reportedly investigated by the United States Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York, the very department he led in the 1980s.

Federal investigators are said to have sifted through his financial records and business dealings in Ukraine, after his work there to try to unearth the dirt on President-elect Joe Biden – a plot for which President Donald Trump was ultimately impeached.

Two of Giuliani’s Ukrainian associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, have been charged with crimes related to their political work in Ukraine. Parnas pleaded guilty.

If Giuliani is charged with a crime arising from the investigation, his legal license could be threatened.

Joshua Roberts / Getty Images

In New York, courts could suspend him from practicing law until the end of the criminal case if they find he poses a threat to his clients, according to Gillers. And if he is convicted of a federal crime, he would automatically be struck off if the same behavior was a felony under state law, Gillers said.

If Giuliani ends up being convicted of a misdemeanor, there is always a path to delisting, according to Gillers.

“If the conduct was only an offense under state law, there is no automatic delisting but there will be a disciplinary investigation, which may lead to a sanction, including delisting depending on what the investigation reveals, “he said.

In general, state bars can order the expungement of lawyers who are convicted of crimes that question their reliability, according to Jacobowitz.

“You may end up being excluded from conviction for a crime that doesn’t necessarily have to do with the practice of law,” Jacobowitz said. “But it has to do with your loyalty or your ability to practice law.”