I previously talked here about Rudy Giuliani appearing in federal court and being woefully unprepared. He gave some really silly answers to serious questions court about his lawsuit. That should have been an embarrassing performance for an experienced litigator.

Now, a three lawyer committee has found that he violated one or more ethical rules in that Pennsylvania lawsuit. Mr. Giuliani appeared in a Pennsylvania federal court in 2020 arguing 1.5 million votes had been illegally counted. He offered no evidence then or now for his allegations. He signed the complaint for that lawsuit. For several days in December, 2022, a three lawyer committee in Washington, D.C. listened to witnesses regarding Mr. Giuliani’s ethics in that lawsuit.

In a lengthy bar association trial, Giuliani again aclaimed there was election fraud in Pennsylvania. And, again, he failed to offer evidence in support of his allegations. In fact, during much of his testimony, he rambled on and on. The presiding lawyer had to advise him more than once to answer the question. His only defense appeared to be that he was rushed when he was driving to the hearing in court. But, as he surely knows, that is no defense to not being prepared for any court appearance. And, for lack of evidence regarding major allegations in a high profile lawsuit? See Politico news report here.

The committee was very likely composed of volunteer attorneys. These sorts of committees are always manned by volunteer members of the bar association. Mr. Giuliani may claim prejudice of some sort, but it is hard to argue that volunteer members of ethic committees are particularly prejudiced one way or the other. Any punishment will be decided later. For most first-time violations, lawyers typically see a letter of warning or possibly probation. But, for such a large sort of violation, who knows what the committee will impose.