It’s heartening that President Biden is broadly popular – the latest Fox News poll puts his job-approval rating at 56 percent – but justice requires that the lawless liars who sought to block his victory be punished for defiling democracy. Justice takes time, but today, at least, we can cheer the news that Rudy Giuliani’s law license has been suspended in his home state of New York.
Rudy arguably deserves to be jailed for his serial perfidies, but the unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court of New York – the first step in removing his law license forever – is surely humiliating for a former U.S. attorney whose job was law enforcement. And it’s further proof that whoever licks Donald Trump’s shoes is destined for self-destruction, that it’s nuts to debase oneself in the service of a loser’s losing cause.
Did you hear the one about Rudy and dead boxer Joe Frazier? The court’s 33-page decision is the fun read of the week.
Here’s the gist of what the court said. It said it better than I can:
“The seriousness of (Giuliani’s) misconduct cannot be overstated. This country is being torn apart by continued attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election and of our current president, Joseph R. Biden. The hallmark of our democracy is predicated on free and fair elections. False statements intended to foment a loss of confidence in our elections and resulting loss of confidence in government generally damage the proper functioning of a free society. When those false statements are made by an attorney, it also erodes the public’s confidence in the integrity of attorneys admitted to our bar and damages the profession’s role as a crucial source of reliable information. It tarnishes the reputation of the entire legal profession and its mandate to act as a trusted and essential part of the machinery of justice.
“Where, as here, the false statements are being made by (Giuliani), acting with the authority of being an attorney, and using his large megaphone, the harm is magnified. One only has to look at the ongoing present public discord over the 2020 election, which erupted into violence, insurrection and death on January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol, to understand the extent of the damage that can be done when the public is misled by false information about the elections. (Jan. 6) only emphasizes the larger point that the broad dissemination of false statements, casting doubt on the legitimacy of thousands of validly cast votes, is corrosive.”
OK, that’s not the fun part of the ruling. That’s where the five judges got serious about all the Rudy idiocies they meticulously enumerated. But for those of us who weathered the long winter months, it helps to have a sense of humor while remembering, for instance, all the lies that Rudy concocted about Philadelphia. Heck, as a Philadelphian, I’m proud that what he said about my city has fueled his downfall.
According to the New York Rules of Professional Conduct, cited by the court, an attorney “shall not…engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.” Now let’s read from the court ruling:
“(Giuliani) repeatedly stated that dead people ‘voted’ in Philadelphia, in order to discredit the results of the vote in that city. He quantified the amount of dead people who voted at various times as 8,021; while also reporting the number as 30,000…As for (his) argument that his misstatements were unknowing, (he) fails to provide a scintilla of evidence for any of the varying and wildly inconsistent numbers of dead people he factually represented voted in Philadelphia during the 2020 presidential election. Although (he) assured the public that he was investigating this claim, respondent has not provided this tribunal with any report or the results of any investigation which supports his statements about how many dead voters he claims voted in Philadelphia in the 2020 presidential election.”
Now we get to Joe Frazier, the late boxer who lived in Philadelphia. Rudy was obsessed with Joe Frazier. This is the fun part of the ruling:
“(Giuliani) repeatedly stated that famous heavyweight boxer Joe Frazier continued to vote years after he was dead and stated on November 7, 2020 that ‘he is still voting here.’ (But) public records show that Pennsylvania formally cancelled Mr. Frazier’s eligibility to vote on February 8, 2012, three months after he died.”
Rudy uttered his lie at the famous Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference on Nov. 7, and he said it again 18 days later at a meeting of the Republican State Senate Majority Policy Committee in Gettysburg. But where did he get the bright idea that Smokin’ Joe was still voting while dead? The court ruling entertains us further:
“Regarding Mr. Frazier, (Giuliani) claims he reasonably relied on the reporting of a ‘blogger.’ The blog article provided on this motion, however, never claims that Mr. Frazier voted in the 2020 election…Despite the unequivocal evidence provided in this (court), that Mr. Frazier is not on the Pennsylvania voting rolls, (Giuliani) continued to endorse this fictionalized account in the March 4, March 11 and March 14, 2021 episodes of his broadcast radio show Chat with the Mayor…”
And he uttered the latter three lies after he was formally threatened with the loss of his law license.
There is so much more in the ruling, if you care to linger. Rudy lied wildly about the voting stats in Georgia – at one point claiming publicly without evidence that 800 dead people voted, at another point saying it was 6,000, at another point saying it was 10,000 – all of which further proves, according to the court, that Rudy’s conduct “threatens the public interest” thus rendering him unfit to practice law, pending a future disbarment proceeding.
It’s nice to see somebody being held accountable somewhere. Rudy is predictably fuming about the ruling, in classic Rudy fashion – “All I can say is, America is not America any longer” – but we can at least be relieved that the kind of America he and his sick client envisioned is getting a reckoning with reality.