SMOKING GUN: Rudy Giuliani admits he lacked evidence when filing election lawsuits
The disciplinary hearing over the suspension of the Washington D.C. law license of Rudy Giuliani got contentious Tuesday as he simultaneously tried to distance himself from the lawsuits that were deemed frivolous and admitted to submitting filings with claims for which he did not have evidence.
Giuliani’s law license was suspended in New York in 2021 as courts evaluated statements he made in lawsuits alleging election fraud and deemed them to be “demonstrably false and misleading.”
He and other attorneys on behalf of Donald Trump have been accused of filing lawsuits for the sake of sowing disinformation rather than in pursuit of justice.
Now Giuliani is facing the Washington D.C. Bar’s disciplinary board in hopes of having his license to practice law restored in that jurisdiction, and he says he’s “shocked and offended” at the proceedings.
He’s largely tried to distance himself from culpability for the lawsuits, pointing out that other attorneys drafted portions of the filings.
However, the former New York City mayor also admitted that there were claims his cases made that he and fellow attorneys could not support with evidence, insisting that this was okay, because the evidence would have been recovered during the discovery phase of the proceedings.
Sadly for a former U.S. Attorney, Giuliani also admitted to having fraud allegations restored in one complaint after they had been removed, and his attorney suggested the blame falls on Donald Trump for urging Giuliani to hurry to become familiar with cases in at least ten states immediately after the election. The Washington Post reports:
“Giuliani said the team put information in the complaint that they believed was accurate at the time, but they expected to obtain the facts later…’In discovery you get the additional information. This was specific enough for this stage of the pleading. That’s why it’s evidence, and not a conclusion,’ he argued.”
The hearing is being streamed through the Washington D.C. Bar’s Board on Professional Responsibility (BPR) and is expected to continue through the week.
Though the BPR removes the videos at the end of each day so that they can only be watched live, you can see a clip below in which he seems to lose his temper, snapping at the lead prosecuting attorney, Phil Fox, and demanding:
“Would you please be fair in your questions?”
Here’s a clip:
Rudy is a little cranky today in his Bar disciplinary hearing. pic.twitter.com/1VD6AYMoYo
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 6, 2022
Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.
