Giuliani loses New York law license after backing Trump's false 2020 election claims

By Andrew Goudsward and Dietrich Knauth

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Rudy Giuliani lost his New York law license on Tuesday, after a state appeals court found he had lied in arguing that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from his client, former Republican U.S. President Donald Trump.

The court found that Giuliani, 80, the former New York mayor who served as Trump's personal lawyer, "baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process" and "actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant."

Giuliani was one of the leading proponents of false claims that Trump's defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 was the result of widespread voter fraud.

A Giuliani spokesperson said he would appeal the decision, calling it "politically and ideologically corrupted." Giuliani previously argued that he believed his statements were true and he did not intend to spread false claims.

Giuliani, who in the 1980s served as U.S. attorney in Manhattan, had been suspended from practicing law in New York since 2021, following Trump supporters' Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. He is also facing professional discipline in Washington, where an ethics panel has recommended he be disbarred.

Giuliani was accused of making false statements to courts, lawmakers and the public while serving as Trump's attorney. The court cited Giuliani's false claims about dead people casting ballots in battleground states and vote-rigging by election workers at a facility in Georgia.

Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection in December after he was ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation lawsuit brought by the two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of rigging votes.

Giuliani on Monday asked a U.S. bankruptcy judge to convert his bankruptcy case into a Chapter 7 liquidation, which would put a court-appointed trustee in charge of selling his assets to pay creditors.

Giuliani is also facing criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona for aiding Trump's efforts to subvert the election, including by arranging slates of presidential electors pledged to vote for Trump in states he lost to Biden.

Giuliani has pleaded not guilty and called the allegations politically motivated.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward in Washington and Dietrich Knauth in New York; editing by Scott Malone and Rod Nickel)