Giuliani’s lawyers submit witness list for upcoming DC attorney discipline hearing
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Rudy Giuliani‘s attorneys plan to rely on several prominent former advisers to Donald Trump as witnesses in an upcoming attorney discipline hearing in Washington, DC, for the onetime Trump lawyer.
Giuliani’s list of witnesses includes the former New York City mayor himself, along with other notable names related to the former President’s attempt to challenge his 2020 election loss in court. Those include Peter Navarro, Corey Lewandowski, Jenna Ellis and Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, according to a filing on Friday in the proceeding.
The DC bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which has brought an ethics case against Giuliani as a member of the DC bar, says he was pushing unsubstantiated election fraud accusations in a Pennsylvania federal court on behalf of Trump.
In oral arguments for the lawsuit filed days after the 2020 election, Giuliani claimed, without evidence, that the “best description of this situation is it’s widespread, nationwide voter fraud of which this is a part.”
The disciplinary filings allege that Giuliani sought to “leverage the lawful rejection of two ballots by non-defendant counties into invalidating up to 1.5 million votes already counted.” The DC bar also charges that there was no “legal basis” for the constitutional claims Giuliani pursued in the Pennsylvania litigation.
The disciplinary office proceeding, called a charge, further puts Giuliani’s status as a lawyer in jeopardy. An upcoming hearing in December will be akin to a trial and takes place before a committee that will make findings and could make recommendations for possible professional sanctions of Giuliani, a former US Attorney. Giuliani had already been suspended from practicing law by the New York bar as that office also investigates his election fraud efforts on behalf of Trump in court.
The DC Court of Appeals has the ultimate authority over the bar’s disciplinary proceedings, and the court reviews and approves any disciplinary actions that include the suspension or disbarment of an attorney accused of misconduct.
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CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
