Rudy Giuliani’s law license should be suspended, national group of attorneys says.

 HuffPost and AOL.COM

 By Nick Visser

A national group of lawyers filed an ethics complaint against Rudy Giuliani on Thursday, calling on the state of New York to suspend his law license following the efforts to undermine the 2020 election and spread lies from Donald Trump about widespread voter fraud causing his presidential reelection loss.

Lawyers Defending American Democracy, a nonpartisan group that includes former judges, attorneys general and federal prosecutors, filed a formal complaint alleging Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, knowingly lied about the results of the election that was won by Democrat Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes. Trump and his allies have been sharply criticized for spreading the voter fraud lies, which fanned the flames of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.

“Lawyers have a legal responsibility to enforce the rule of law,” Scott Harshbarger, the chairman of the LDAD and a former Massachusetts attorney general, said in a statement. “There must be accountability for misconduct which is so obvious and consequential. He claimed Mr. Trump was a victim when he was the one trying to disenfranchise tens of millions of American voters.”

The New York Times added that more than a thousand people had signed the complaint, one of the most serious efforts to censure Giuliani so far. The group has called for an investigation into the attorney’s conduct but said he should have his license suspended while it goes forward, warning of further division if he’s allowed to hold his stature.

“Even as this complaint is being submitted, violence fed by Mr. Giuliani’s attack on democracy is eroding the rule of law,” the letter reads. “The Committee should not permit Mr. Giuliani to continue to use his professional stature and his bar license to tear apart the social fabric of this country, and threaten public safety, while it investigates. The violations are too clear, and there is too much [at] stake.”

Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City, said Thursday on his radio show that the efforts were an attempt to deny his right to free speech, calling his critics “idiots” and “political hacks,” the Times added.

“The whole purpose of this is to disbar me from my exercising my right of free speech and defending my client, because they can’t fathom the fact that maybe, just maybe, they may be wrong,” he said.

The letter comes about a week after the chairman of the New York State Senate judiciary committee, Brad Hoylman (D), called for Giuliani to be stripped of his license. Hoylman said the attack on the U.S. Capitol was “the foreseeable culmination of increasingly outrageous lies and disinformation being peddled” by the attorney.

“The codes of ethics we as attorneys swear to uphold are intended to safeguard both the public and the reputation of the profession itself,” Hoylman wrote in a formal request earlier this month. “A failure to hold a member of our ranks accountable for seditious acts and exhortations of violence is a failure to provide that safeguard.”

The New York Bar Association has also launched an inquiry into Giuliani’s membership in the body after receiving hundreds of complaints about his work. The step would be highly unusual, and the Times reports the group has not removed someone who hasn’t yet been disbarred in more than a century.

Giuliani was one of Trump’s most vocal surrogates and defenders during the failed effort to overturn the election. His legal team lost dozens of court cases in an attempt to throw out ballots — and disenfranchise voters of color — but Giuliani spent weeks spreading lies about rampant election fraud. He drew fierce criticism after a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, vandalizing the halls of Congress and leaving five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer.

In a speech before the insurrection, Giuliani told Trump supporters to consider “trial by combat.” (He later said he was just making a reference to a “very famous documentary” called “Game of Thrones.”)

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TO TRUMP, GIULIANI, MCCONNELL, AND THE LEADERSHIP OF THE RUSS-PUBLICAN PARTY, ONLY ONE THING MATTERS: HOW TO FULFILL THEIR OBLIGATION TO THE RUSSIAN GRU AND VLADIMIR PUTIN, BY TURNING THE U.S. INTO A FASCIST STATE. GUESS WHAT COMES WITH SUCH A GOVERNMENT?: A COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION. THAT'S WHAT THE ENEMIES OF THE U.S. WANT, AND IF WE FOLLOW "PATRIOTS" LIKE TRUMP AND GIULIANI, IT IS WHAT THEY WILL GET.- DAVID.

Nancy Pelosi: It would be 'harmful to unity' to skip Trump. HUFFPOST AND AOL.COM

JENNIFER BENDERY

January 21, 2021, 12:44 PM

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday resoundingly rejected the idea that moving forward with a Senate impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump could undercut President Joe Biden’s message of unity in America.

“I don’t see that at all,” Pelosi said in her weekly press briefing when asked the question. “I think that would be harmful to unity.”

The fact is, she said, that Trump incited an insurrection on Jan. 6, when a violent mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and roamed the halls looking for lawmakers to stop them from certifying Biden’s electoral win. Five people died.

“Just because he’s gone now ― thank god ― you don’t say to a president, ‘Do whatever you want in the last months of your administration’ … because people think we should make nice-nice and forget that people died here, that [Trump attempted] to undermine our election, to undermine our democracy, to dishonor our Constitution,” said Pelosi.

“Joe Biden said it beautifully: ‘If you’re going to unite, you must remember,’” she added, referencing part of Biden’s inauguration speech. “That’s our responsibility, to uphold the integrity of the Congress of the United States. That’s our responsibility, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And that is what we will do.”

The House voted to impeach Trump a week after the Capitol riot, making him the first president to be impeached twice. A record 10 Republicans voted yes on the single article of impeachment: incitement of insurrection.

It’s up to Pelosi to decide when to send the article of impeachment to the Senate, which would then trigger a trial in that chamber. She said only that it would be happening soon.

“Nope,” she said when asked for more specific timing. “It will be soon, as I said. You’ll be the first to know.”*

*GOOD FOR YOU SPEAKER PELOSI. THE RUSS-PUBLICAN PARTY AND THEIR ALLIES THE PUTIN GOVERNMENT, DO NOT CARE ABOUT CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OR KEEPING AN OATH OF TRUST. "FASCISM" IS THEIR GOAL, WITH TREASON AND SEDITION AS THE MECHANISM. - DAVID. 

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION- Sign up for next week’s APA Member Webinar on anti-racist pedagogy.

 

Dear DAVID,   In the wake of uprisings for racial justice in 2020 and the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, many philosophers are grappling with how to implement anti-racist pedagogical practices in their philosophy courses. To assist philosophers in these efforts, the APA has organized a webinar: Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Philosophy.     The webinar will feature brief presentations from philosophers on the webinar topic, followed by Q&A with attendees. The panelists for the webinar are the following: Johnathan Flowers, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Worcester State University — presenter Kritika Kanchana Yegnashankaran, Associate Director of Faculty and Lecturer Programs, Stanford University — presenter Jeannine Weekes Schroer, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Minnesota Duluth — presenter Lori Watson, Professor of Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis; Chair of the APA Committee on Inclusiveness in the Profession — facilitator The webinar will be held on Tuesday, January 26 at 4 p.m. Eastern time / 1 p.m. Pacific time. To participate, register on the APA website. Registration will be available until 11 a.m. Eastern time / 8 a.m. Pacific time on the day of the webinar, and access information will be provided to registrants at least one hour prior to the start of the webinar. Registration is limited to current APA members.     Space is limited, so register now! If you’re unable to attend the live webinar, a recording will be made available to APA members afterward.   All the best,   Amy Ferrer Executive Director

The American Philosophical Association University of Delaware 31 Amstel Avenue, Newark, DE 19716

Today we celebrate, and tomorrow we get to work. U.S. SENATOR MARK KELLY.

 David —

Today is Inauguration Day and we are ready and excited for what the future will hold under this new administration.

Mark is someone who believes in science, data and facts. He doesn't believe in partisanship, and he knows that the problems that we're facing as a country are really hard to solve and the only way we're going to solve them is by working together.

That’s why today is such a big moment in our country's history. This is our opportunity to move forward and come together — Democrat and Republican — to solve some of our most challenging issues.

Today is an historic day for our country, one we should all stop to appreciate and let sink in. All of the hard work and effort we put in is finally paying off and today is the day we get to take it all in.

But we also have to get right to work, because there’s a lot to do and the American people are waiting for us to resolve our differences and work together to find solutions to issues like climate change, providing COVID-19 relief, and rebuilding the economy.

We are so thankful to have you with us, and we’re so excited for what comes next.

All our best,

Team Kelly