What you should know
- Rudy Giuliani faces possible expulsion from the New York State Bar Association for inflammatory remarks he made to supporters of President Donald Trump last week before they violently stormed the United States Capitol.
- The organization said Monday it has opened an investigation into whether Giuliani should remain a member. Its bylaws state that “no person who advocates the overthrow of the United States government” will remain a member.
- Removal of the bar association, a voluntary membership organization dating back to 1876, is not the same as being disqualified and banned from practicing law. That can only be done by the courts.
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NEW YORK – Rudy Giuliani faces possible expulsion from the New York State Bar Association for inflammatory remarks he made to supporters of President Donald Trump last week, before he violently storming the United States Capitol.
The organization said Monday it has opened an investigation into whether Giuliani should remain a member. Its bylaws state that “no person who advocates the overthrow of the United States government” will remain a member.
Removal of the bar association, a voluntary membership organization dating back to 1876, is not the same as being disqualified and banned from practicing law. That can only be done by the courts.
A message seeking comment was left with Giuliani’s spokesman while the bar association said he would be given due process and an opportunity to explain and defend his words and actions.
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, is Trump’s personal attorney and has played a prominent role in the Republican president’s fight to reverse his electoral defeat to President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat. During the months after the elections, both Trump and Giuliani have denounced an alleged fraud about which they have not shown evidence and which has been dismissed by multiple judicial instances.
The bar association said it has received hundreds of complaints about Giuliani’s work to perpetuate Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, culminating in forceful remarks last Wednesday in Washington as Congress convened to recount Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.
“If we are wrong, we will look foolish, but if we are right, a lot of them will go to jail,” Giuliani told the crowd. “Let’s do trial by combat.”
The bar association said in a statement that Giuliani’s words “were clearly intended to encourage Trump supporters unhappy with the election outcome to take matters into their own hands.”
The unrest against the president grows after the riots in the Capitol.
The bar association said it condemns the violence on Capitol Hill, calling it “nothing less than an attempted coup, aimed at preventing the peaceful transition of power.”
“We cannot sit idly by and allow those who try to tear the fabric of our democracy out of control,” the organization said in a statement.
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