Brad Hoylman wants to lay down the law against Rudy Giuliani — by getting the former mayor banned from practicing law in New York State.
On Monday, the state senator, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following remarks to the committee about his plan to file a formal complaint to have the former mayor disbarred.
“Like many of you, I was horrified to watch last week’s insurrection attempt in Washington, D.C.,” Hoylman said. “And I was especially dismayed to see members of the legal profession from New York State at the heart of it.
“I will be filing a formal complaint with the Appellate Division of the Unified Court System asking them to consider revoking Rudy Giuliani’s license to practice law in New York due to rampant and egregious violations of the rules of professional conduct related to his participation in a scheme to unlawfully overturn the results of a free and fair election and his complicity in inflaming a violent coup attempt on our seat of federal government.
“During a speech last Wednesday immediately prior to the storming of the U.S. Capitol,” Hoylman continued, “Giuliani repeated baseless claims to sow doubt about the results of the 2020 presidential elections, and urged the angry mob to seek ‘trial by combat.’
“The profession of law is a sacred and noble one,” he said. “And there can be no room in the profession for those who seek to undermine and undo the rule of law.
“I’ll do the same for any other attorney licensed in New York who was found to have participated in last week’s assault on our democracy. There must be consequences for seditious acts.”
I would like to add what I just heard on the news. They played a taped voice message left by Giuliani last Wednesday night — after Rudy exhorted the mob to embrace “trial by combat” — to a Senate office phone which Rudy mistakenly thought was in the office of Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, a staunch supporter of Trump who was one of the original leaders of the Senate group advocating overthrowing the Electoral College votes in favor of Biden in four states. In the call, Rudy urges Tuberville to continue to disrupt the counting of the votes to gain more time for Trump. This message proves that Giuliani’s exhortation to the mob beforehand was not a one-off that incited the mob to an insurrection to storm the Capitol but only the beginning of an ongoing course of conduct that continued into the night, acting in concert with Trump, to overthrow the legitimate will of the people and its government.
Disbarring Rudy is long overdue, very long overdue. His knowingly specious and and bizarre claims that he pedaled to dozens of courts asking them to overturn valid state elections were a mockery and disgrace to the legal profession. His pathetic antics joining with lunatic conspiracy theorists to support legal arguments descended to the level of buffoonery. While the legal profession has been increasingly brought into disrepute during the last four years, Rudy’s clear complicity with Trump and Trump Jr last Wednesday in calling for “trial by combat” and inciting the mob to seize the Capitol to overthrow Biden’s rightful election, has almost single-handedly brought whatever has been left of the legal profession’s reputation to an all-time low. Rudy’s actions and words last Wednesday were clearly criminal. The people of the State of New York will think even more poorly of the legal profession if Giuliani is only disbarred after he is indicted.