In the new testimony from the DC bar, Giuliani is accused of violating the Pennsylvania Code of Professional Ethics. He did so, the statement said, adding that he “instituted proceedings and advocated for issues without superficial legal and factual basis for doing so” and “attempted conduct detrimental to the administration of justice”. CNN contacted Giuliani’s lawyer, but did not receive an answer to his question about the ethics allegations. The deposition is the beginning of the process of revoking or suspending Giuliani’s license in DC, separately from the disciplinary action he had already received from the New York bar, while investigating allegations of professional misconduct against him. In the Pennsylvania case, the new disciplinary submissions allege that Giuliani tried to “use the legal rejection of two ballots by countless counties to cancel up to 1.5 million votes already counted.” The DC Bar allegations filed by Disciplinary Adviser Hamilton Fox claim that there was no “legal basis” for the constitutional claims that Giuliani pursued in the Pennsylvania trial. The dispute was a lawsuit filed a few days after the 2020 election in a federal court in Pennsylvania on behalf of Trump’s campaign. In oral discussions on the case, Giuliani claimed without evidence that “the best description of this situation is the widespread, nationwide voter fraud, of which this is a part.” “The only part we have in the masses is the Democratic – heavily controlled counties that you can call counties controlled by a Democratic machine that have a pretty impressive list of convictions for voter fraud as part of their history and tradition. “And all of a sudden, with this greater opportunity to do so, they did it on a large scale,” Giuliani said in an oral argument referring to new categories of ethics from the DC Bar. Disciplinary testimony states that Giuliani had “cited in the district court as the basis for his allegations of fraud many sources who could not, as a categorical proof, prove that” the defendants in the Pennsylvania case “had committed or facilitated electoral fraud during 2020 election. “ Giuliani also had no evidence in his allegation that obstruction at the polling stations in Pennsylvania was tantamount to fraud, the new bill said. Giuliani “had to know the ‘evidence’ he presented ‘in the case to claim that the mass fraud was’ based on false or inaccurate statistics and analyzes’.” Of the 300 affidavits provided by Giuliani in the Pennsylvania case, the DC Bar allegations stated that they were “(a) unsupported, (b) unrelated to Trump voters (c) contained conduct outside the seven county defendants, and “(d) on their own terms were isolated incidents that could not have affected the outcome of the presidential election by offsetting Biden’s majority by more than 80,000 votes.” The disciplinary proceedings against Giuliani will now go through a hearing where he will be able to respond to the accusations. The charges will first be brought before the so-called hearing committee, which can examine evidence and testimonies. In the contested procedure, according to the website of the DC Bar, the “Hearing Committee prepares a report and a recommendation, with proposed real findings, legal conclusions and a recommended sanction, which is submitted to the” Professional Responsibility Council of the Bar Association. The DC Court of Appeal has final jurisdiction over the bar association disciplinary proceedings, and the court reviews and approves any disciplinary action that includes the suspension or dismissal of a lawyer charged with a misdemeanor. This story has been updated with additional details. CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.
