President Donald Trump’s attorney and former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, talks to journalists outside the White House West Wing on July 1, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
The New York Bar Association said Monday it will investigate whether the membership of Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, should be revoked over his violent rhetoric during a rally for the president ahead of the riots in New York. Capitol last week. like other actions.
The bar group said in a statement that the blame for thousands of supporters of the president lay ‘first and foremost’ with ‘Trump, who continued to make false claims about his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden.
“But the president did not act alone,” the bar association said.
“Hours before the angry mob stormed the walls of the Capitol, Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, addressed a crowd of thousands in the White House, reiterating unfounded allegations of widespread election fraud in the US presidential election and the end of the US Senate. Georgia. ‘
At the rally near the White House shortly before the riot, Giuliani said: “If we are wrong, we will become fools, but if we are right, many of them will go to jail.”
“Let’s we fight with a fight,” said Giuliani, a former New York mayor, former U.S. attorney general and former top Justice Department official.
The Lawyers ‘Association noted that its statutes stipulate that’ no person who seeks to overthrow the government of the United States, or of any state, territory or possession thereof, or of any political subdivision therein, by force or in any other unlawful manner not a member of the Association. ‘
And the group said: “The words of Mr. Giuliani were very clearly aimed at encouraging Trump supporters who were unhappy with the outcome of the election to take matters into their own hands.”
“Their subsequent attack on the Capitol was nothing more than an attempted coup, intended to prevent the peaceful transfer of power,” said the group, whose membership is voluntary.
Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the statement by the group, which called its investigation “historic”. The association said its decision was not taken lightly.
If the bar group does start him off his membership list, Giuliani will still be allowed to exercise rights in his home state of New York. To ban an advocate there, the appeals committee of the appeals division of the state’s court system must act.
The lawyers’ association has said it has received hundreds of complaints about Giuliani over the past few months and its unfounded attempts on behalf of President Trump to question the truth of the 2020 presidential election and, after the votes are cast, overturn its legal results. . “
None of these attempts, which include lawsuits, have succeeded in invalidating a single vote for Biden on a claim of fraud.
The group said the investigation into Giuliani’s expulsion was based on previous allegations and on his statement shortly before the Capitol was attacked.
“We can not stand still and allow those who are aiming to tear the democracy of our democracy,” the association said.
‘Mr. “Giuliani will get a proper trial and an opportunity – if he so chooses – to explain and defend his words and actions,” the group said.
Giuliani could be called upon to defend Trump if he is charged with the riots, which killed five people, including a Capitol police officer who was killed by the president’s supporters.
The riot interrupts the confirmation by Congress of the election of Biden as the next president.