The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) has launched a "historic" inquiry into a question whether one of its members, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, should be stripped of his membership.
The NYSBA said it based its inquiry on the long trove of complaints against Giuliani, which it had been receiving in recent months, but decided to take action only after his speech on the Capitol Hill not long before an angry group of Trump supporters stormed into the Capitol building by force. The association claims that Giuliani had a hand in triggering the "abhorrent incident" along with his client, President Donald Trump.
In his speech on 6 January Giuliani condemned the reluctance of authorities to provide the evidence that Trump's legal team requested in a bid to prove the existence of voter fraud in November election. The lawyer stated that innocent people have nothing to hide and Trump's team will be "made fools of" if that is true. However, the NYSBA took especial interest in one specific part of his speech, where Giuliani called to have a "trial by combat" without putting his words into context.
"Let's have trial by combat": Trump and Republicans repeatedly made false claims about the election and encouraged unrest ahead of violent scenes in the Capitol today. pic.twitter.com/Tbn2HmEdjM
— Zach Purser Brown (@zachjourno) January 6, 2021
The association saw his words as a call to disgruntled pro-Trump protesters to "overturn legitimate results" of the election by taking the Congress building by force.
"NYSBA’s bylaws state that no person who advocates the overthrow of the government of the US […] or of any political subdivision therein, by force or other illegal means, shall be a member of the Association," the NYSBA statement said, alleging that Giuliani's call for a "trial by combat" can be viewed as an attempt to overthrow the government "by force".
The NYSBA further slammed Giuliani's actions in recent months which it alleges were directed at undermining trust in the US voting system and in the results of the November election. The association specifically condemned Giuliani for filing numerous lawsuits across several states in an attempt to prove that voter fraud had taken place there, which have since all been rescinded by the local and federal courts.
At the same time, the association promised to give Giuliani an opportunity to "explain and defend his words and actions" as part of the inquiry into stripping him of the NYSBA membership. Trump's lawyer has not so far responded to the NYSBA's statements.
