NJ Congressman files complaints in five key states to disbar Giuliani and other Trump attorneys
A Democratic congressman from New Jersey has had enough of Donald Trump’s post-defeat temper tantrum and is now fighting back by going after the legal team that has filed so many baseless lawsuits contesting the results of the election.
Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) has filed suit in five different states trying to disbar the lead attorney spearheading Trump’s legal team and 22 other lawyers involved in filing what he considers frivolous motions seeking to invalidate lawfully cast ballots in crucial swing states and overturn the legitimate results of the election to hand Trump a second term.
“We live together in extraordinary and increasingly dangerous national circumstances. At present, our sitting President has refused to accept the outcome of our national election and is attacking the integrity of our electoral system to keep himself in power,” the frustrated congressman said in explaining his motivations in embarking on the legal actions. “The pattern of behavior by these individuals to effectuate Mr. Trump’s sinister arson is a danger not just to our legal system but is also unprecedented in our national life.”
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Trump’s battery of attorneys has been shrinking as reputable firms have withdrawn from representing the lame-duck president, likely because of a paucity of evidence to support the claims that Trump wants them to make in the courts and because of the fear of the damage being associated with the circus-like efforts to undermine our democracy will have on their reputations.
In hindsight, those firms that abandoned the sinking Trump campaign ship early may have been prescient given the threat of disbarment that Congressman Pascrell’s legal challenge brings.
Since the Trump campaign and its GOP allies have lost or been forced to withdraw 32 of the cases that they brought in their election disputes, Rep. Pascrell charged Giuliani and the other members of his legal task force with repeatedly filing frivolous lawsuits with the unstated goal of destroying American citizens’ confidence in the country’s electoral systems.
Congressman Pascrell made the charges in letters to bar associations and legal authorities in New York, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona.
“These states’ administration of their elections were strong, and there is no evidence of systemic malfeasance or fraud in any of them,” Pascrell said. “Nevertheless, Mr. Giuliani has participated in the filing a series of absurd lawsuits seeking to overturn the will of the voters in these states and has caused irreversible damage to the public trust in the fair administration of our elections.”
While New York is not a swing state like the four others on the list, it is a major market for legal services and a disbarment in the state could have serious consequences for the future earnings prospects for Giuliani and the other Trump attorneys. New York’s rules of professional conduct for licensed lawyers prohibit the filing of frivolous lawsuits and classify dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentations as professional misconduct.
“In carrying out that perversion, they have clearly violated the Rules of Professional Conduct they swore to uphold and should face the severest sanction your body can mete out: revocation of their law licensures,” Rep. Pascrell indignantly insisted.
For an administration that has yet to face any serious consequences for its violation of democratic norms, Congressman Pascrell’s move to sanction the attorneys leading the legal charge enabling and defending Donald Trump’s delusional conspiracy theories about the election — one that he lost by over six million votes — may be the most effective way to bring the campaign’s spurious challenges to a halt.
It certainly would be emotionally satisfying to see at least some of the players in Trump’s clown car campaign face consequences for the trauma they have caused to the people of our country.
It may not be quite as satisfying as seeing Trump, his family, and his Republican enablers held legally and financially accountable for their misdeeds, but it’s at least a good start.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Nikita Biryukov at The New Jersey Globe.
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