Giuliani's Actions: Lawful Or Criminal?

Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, has been accused of breaking the law in his dealings with Ukrainian officials. Giuliani travelled to various countries to meet with advisers for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, in an attempt to convince the foreign government to investigate potential corruption by the Bidens in Ukraine.

Giuliani's actions have been described as very unusual by law professor Jeremy Paul, who also states that Giuliani's argument of attorney-client privilege would be a stretch. Giuliani's activities as Trump's attorney have led to allegations that he engaged in corruption and profiteering. He has been sued for defamation, sexual assault, and tampering with digital data, and has been disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Giuliani's involvement in the Trump-Ukraine scandal

Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and personal lawyer to then-US President Donald Trump, was a central figure in the Trump-Ukraine scandal. The scandal arose from the discovery of Trump's attempts to coerce Ukraine into investigating his political rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden, to damage Biden's 2020 election campaign.

Giuliani's Actions

Giuliani travelled to various countries to meet with advisers to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He attempted to convince the Ukrainian government to investigate potential "corruption" by the Bidens in Ukraine. Giuliani's goal was to get the Ukrainian government to investigate Hunter Biden, who had served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Giuliani also met with Ukrainian officials throughout 2019, including Ukraine's then-prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko. Lutsenko asked Giuliani for help in arranging a meeting with the US Attorney General to discuss efforts to recover looted national assets. He also spoke with Giuliani about his clashes with the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. The Trump administration later removed Yovanovitch from her post.

Giuliani's actions were at least "very unusual", according to a law professor and former dean of the Northeastern University School of Law. Giuliani's argument that his conversations with Trump were confidential because of attorney-client privilege would "be a stretch", according to the professor.

Aftermath

Giuliani was subpoenaed as part of the impeachment investigation into Trump. He was also under federal investigation for his business dealings in Ukraine.

In 2021, Giuliani's license to practice law was suspended in the state of New York, pending an investigation related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He was later disbarred in the state of New York and the District of Columbia.

In April 2021, federal agents raided Giuliani's Manhattan home and office, seizing computers and cell phones.

In 2023, Giuliani was indicted in Georgia for making false statements about election fraud in December 2020. He was also among 18 people indicted on charges related to the 2020 election in Arizona.

In 2024, Giuliani was ordered to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers he defamed. He was later disbarred in New York and the District of Columbia.

Giuliani's disbarment in New York and Washington, D.C

In June 2021, a New York appellate court suspended Rudy Giuliani's law license, citing "uncontroverted" evidence that he made demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Giuliani's license was also suspended in Washington, D.C., in July 2021.

In July 2024, Giuliani was disbarred in the state of New York. Two months later, in September 2024, he was also disbarred in the District of Columbia under reciprocal discipline.

Giuliani's defamation of Georgia election workers

In December 2021, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, two Georgia election workers, sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation. Giuliani had falsely accused them of manipulating vote tallies and claimed they were "passing around USB ports as if they were vials of heroin or cocaine" and engaging in "surreptitious illegal activity". In reality, they were passing a box of mints.

Giuliani's false claims led to a torrent of racist threats against Freeman and Moss, including "Be glad it's 2020 and not 1920," in reference to lynching in the United States. Moss testified before the House of Representatives that people had shown up at Freeman's home, attempted to conduct a "citizen's arrest" of Moss at her grandmother's home, and barraged Moss' teenage son with cell phone messages.

In July 2023, Giuliani was ordered to pay attorneys' fees to the election workers after being sanctioned for failing to turn over evidence in the case. Later that month, Giuliani admitted his statements had been "defamatory per se" yet denied they had caused "any damages". In August 2023, a judge ruled that he had forfeited his case by failing to comply with his discovery obligations.

On December 15, 2023, a federal jury ordered Giuliani to pay $148 million to Freeman and Moss, including $75 million in punitive damages. Giuliani said he would appeal, and one of his lawyers suggested he would file for bankruptcy.

On January 3, 2025, Giuliani was held in contempt of court for failing to pay damages as part of the defamation lawsuit. He has faced other legal challenges over baseless claims he made about widespread fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Giuliani's involvement in the Capitol riots

On January 6, 2021, Rudy Giuliani, former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, spoke at a ""Save America March"" rally on the Ellipse that was attended by Trump supporters protesting the election results. He repeated conspiracy theories about voting machines being "crooked" and called for "trial by combat", which he later claimed was not a call to violence but a reference to *Game of Thrones*. Trump supporters then stormed the U.S. Capitol, resulting in the deaths of four people and the disruption of the Electoral College vote count.

Giuliani had reportedly been calling Republican lawmakers to urge them to delay the electoral vote count in an attempt to ultimately throw the election to Trump. He attempted to contact Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Trump ally, around 7:00 p.m. on January 6, after the Capitol storming, to ask him to "try to just slow it down" by objecting to multiple states and "raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow – ideally until the end of tomorrow". However, Giuliani mistakenly left the message on the voicemail of another senator, who leaked the recording to *The Dispatch*.

Giuliani faced widespread criticism for his appearance at the rally and the Capitol riot that followed. Manhattan College president Brennan O'Donnell stated in a January 7 open letter to the college community that Giuliani's conduct as a leader of the campaign to delegitimize the election and disenfranchise millions of voters was "a repudiation of the deepest values of his alma mater."

The New York State Bar Association launched an investigation into whether Giuliani should be removed from its membership rolls, noting his comments to the Trump supporter rally at the Ellipse on January 6, and that it had received hundreds of complaints in recent months about Mr. Giuliani and his baseless efforts on behalf of President Trump to cast doubt on the veracity of the 2020 presidential election and, after the votes were cast, to overturn its legitimate results. Removal from the group's membership rolls would not directly disbar Giuliani from practicing law in New York.

Additionally, in January 2021, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine said he was considering charging Giuliani, along with Donald Trump Jr. and Representative Mo Brooks, with inciting the violent attack.

Giuliani's suspension of law license

On June 24, 2021, a New York appellate court suspended Rudy Giuliani's law license. The panel of five justices found that there was "uncontroverted" evidence that Giuliani made "demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public and that "These false statements were made to improperly bolster (Giuliani's) narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client."

The suspension came after Giuliani, a former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and New York City mayor, was found to have lied in arguing that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from his client, former U.S. President Donald Trump. Giuliani was punished for making false claims that widespread voter fraud had undermined the election, which Democrat Joe Biden won.

Citing the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, the Appellate Division said that Giuliani's eagerness to trumpet false claims "immediately threatens the public interest" and could erode public confidence in the election process and the legal profession. The court also stated that Giuliani's false statements were particularly harmful because he was acting with the authority of being an attorney and using his large platform to spread misinformation.

Giuliani called the suspension "a one-sided decision not based on evidence" and blamed Democrats for his growing legal troubles. He also claimed that dozens of witnesses could back up his election fraud claims.

The suspension of Giuliani's law license in New York triggered an automatic suspension in Washington, D.C., where he was also licensed to practice law. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals suspended Giuliani from practicing law in Washington, pending a disciplinary proceeding in New York.

Giuliani's suspension was temporary, pending the outcome of a full formal disciplinary hearing. However, the appeals court stated that his temporary suspension could become permanent after a hearing by the attorney grievance committee.

In addition to the suspension of his law license, Giuliani faced other legal consequences for his false claims about the 2020 election. He was sued by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, two rival companies that he made false assertions about, and was ordered to pay $148 million in damages to two Georgia election workers whom he falsely accused of trying to help steal the 2020 election for Biden. Giuliani was also indicted in Georgia and Arizona on criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the election results in those states.

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