On Monday, The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) announced that they are launching an inquiry to determine whether or not they will remove Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor and President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, from their membership and ranks. The Association opened the inquiry following Giuliani’s role in provoking and feeding the flames of the pro-Trump mob that terrorized the nation last week. The Association’s inquiry was also opened because of his role in the attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Following the attack on January 6th, enraged citizens pointed to Trump as the root of the formation of the violent mob outside the Capitol, but he did not act alone. Giuliani had continuously spread baseless claims and conspiracy theories about the election despite there being no evidence of voter fraud. Hours before the Capitol walls were attacked, Giuliani addressed a crowd of thousands and asserted claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 election and the Georgia Senate runoffs.

Preceding the riot, the “March to Save America” rally presented Giuliani as one of the speakers, he stated “If we’re wrong, we will be made fools of, but if we’re right a lot of them will go to jail.” The effects of his comments most likely fed the fires of the then peaceful crowd. While the “March to Save America” rally was publicly promoted as being organized by groups not tied to Trump or his team, behind the scenes, White House staff and close allies of the President, including Giuliani, worked with the organizers to plan and promote the events that took place on Wednesday.

The NYSBA is a private professional association so, revoking Giuliani’s membership would not mean he would lose his law license. He would still be able to represent Trump in an impeachment trial or other litigation. However, it would add another layer of criticism to that which Giuliani has been facing from the legal community. Removal from the NYSBA is very rare, the last time a member was removed was in 1904.