Self-described “personal lawyer” to President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani seems to be scrubbing his Twitter account in the days following a violent attack on the U.S. capitol building by Trump supporters that he himself helped encourage and incite.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Giuliani is no longer following these people on Twitter:
Senator Marco Rubio (R. FL) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, First Lady Melania Trump, Second Lady Karen Pence, Vice President Mike Pence, recently resigned Sec. of Education Betsy DeVos, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. KY), GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Lara Trump, and pardoned former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort.
Giuliani, who clearly had a hand in helping incite Wednesday’s deadly insurrection perpetrated by some of Trump’s most extreme supporters by calling for “combat justice” in a speech to an armed, pro-Trump hours before the attack on the U.S. Capitol, seems to have spent some Twitter time on Friday and Saturday unfollowing about 25 top Trump officials, supporters, and other conservatives figures.
The Trump Alert is a bot that sends alerts whenever Trump (before his account was permenantly suspended by the social media giant), members of his family, and/or close associates follow or unfollow anyone on the social media platform, reported dozens of unfollows by Giuliani over the weekend:
Giuliani was following 539 people as of Wednesday, the day of the Capitol violence. By Friday, he was following 453 people. About 60 of those lost followers are due to account suspensions, or, like Rush Limbaugh, voluntary account shut downs.
Giuliani also picked up some new follows, like new Congressman Madison Cawthorn, a pro-Trump extremist sympathetic to Hitler.
The reason(s) for Giuliani’s Twitter activity remain unclear, though some Twitter users suggested that Donald Trump took over the account in the aftermath of his own account being shut down.
Donald Trump’s personal attorney may find himself without a law license because of his role in provoking the riots that took place at the Capitol on Wednesday.
On Monday, the New York State Bar Association launched a historic investigation of Giuliani.
On Wednesday before the riots began Giuliani spoke at Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally. During his speech, Giuliani called for pro-Trump supporters to stop Congress from verifying President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win by “trial by combat.”
“If we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail,” Giuliani told the mob of Trump supporters.
Shortly after Trump, Donald Trump Jr, and Giuliani riled up the crowd at the rally the group then marched to the Capitol. Gunfire could be heard and bombs were put outside the Capitol grounds. The pro-Trump supporters forced their way through barricades, some of them scaled the Capitol’s walls, while others climbed through broken windows. The siege caused lawmakers to be evacuated.
The riot resulted in five deaths including a Capitol Police officer who was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher.
“As the nation’s largest voluntary state bar association, NYSBA has a responsibility to defend and protect the rule of law,” it said in a written statement. “Based on these complaints, and the statement Mr. Giuliani uttered shortly before the attack on the Capitol, NYSBA President Scott M. Karson has launched an inquiry pursuant to the Association’s bylaws to determine whether Mr. Giuliani should be removed from the membership rolls of the Association.”
The NYSBA’s investigation is further motivated by the fact that Giuliani could easily be seen as violating NYSBA bylaws by supporting “the overthrow of the government of the United States, or of any state, territory or possession thereof, or of any political subdivision therein, by force or other illegal means.”
The statement also made it clear that they had long received complaints about Giuliani’s “baseless” allegations of widespread election fraud.
If Giuliani is found guilty by the bar, he could see his membership revoked. He will, however, be given the opportunity to defend his actions.
Earlier in the week Democratic congressman Ted Lieu and Mondaire Jones publicly called for the bar to open an investigation into Giuliani and his actions.
“We will hold responsible everyone involved with the attempted coup, including the attorney to [the president], Rudy Giuliani,” Lieu said over Twitter.
To add to Giuliani’s problems on Friday, Washington’s top prosecutor hinted that Donald Trump, his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and personal attorney Rudy Giuliani may be investigated and charged for their roles in inciting a violent mob or pro-Trump supporters that stormed the U.S. Capitol.
While appearing on “Good Morning America,” DC Attorney General Karl Racine laid the blame for the riot directly at the feet of Donald Trump and his fiery speech to supporters just before they marched to Congress.
“I think the question is, how far up does it go? Clearly, the Capitol was ground central in all of this mob’s behavior,” Racine stated.
“Donald Trump Jr., Giuliani, even the president of the United States, we’re calling on their supporters and hate groups to go to the Capitol and in the words of Rudy Giuliani ‘exercise combat justice,’” Racine added.
“We’re going to investigate not only the mobsters but also those who invited the violence.”
The Department of Justice has not ruled out bringing charges against Donald Trump, who again be a private citizen on January 20.
