Numerous attorneys who aided Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election face disbarment or other disciplinary action. Here’s an update on three of those cases.
Rudy Giuliani
Credit: Rebecca Wright for the Atlanta J
Credit: Rebecca Wright for the Atlanta J
Giuliani spread false voting fraud allegations and played a key role in trying to persuade legislators to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. He has pleaded not guilty to 13 felony counts in the Georgia case.
Last week a law licensing board in Washington recommended Giuliani be disbarred, citing his participation in a “frivolous” Pennsylvania lawsuit that sought to invalidate the election.
“We conclude that disbarment is the only sanction that will protect the public, the courts and the integrity of the legal profession, and deter other lawyers from launching similarly baseless claims in the pursuit of such wide-ranging yet completely unjustified relief,” the board found.
A New York court suspended Giuliani’s license to practice there three years ago.
Jenna Ellis
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Ellis aided Giuliani’s efforts to persuade Georgia legislators to overturn Biden’s victory. In October she pleaded guilty to one felony count in the Georgia election interference case.
Ellis recently agreed to have her Colorado law license suspended for three years. In a May 22 letter to the Colorado Supreme Court, Ellis apologized for her “overly zealous” belief in false voting fraud allegations Trump and others used to try to overturn the election.
“I turned a blind eye to the possibility that senior lawyers for the Trump campaign were embracing claims they knew or should have known were false,” Ellis wrote. “I just went along with it. I was wrong.”
John Eastman
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Eastman helped develop dubious legal arguments that state legislators or Vice President Mike Pence could overturn Biden’s victory. He also lobbied legislators and the vice president to act on his theories. He has pleaded not guilty to nine counts in the Georgia case.
Last month the District of Columbia Court of Appeals temporarily suspended Eastman’s license to practice there. The court’s order cited a California judge’s recent recommendation that Eastman be disbarred.
