The charges came a day after the US House Select Committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, started hearings during prime time. During these hearings, evidence was presented that Trump and some of his political allies tried to change the results of the 2020 election.

Giuliani's lawyer did not have anything to say right away.

The charges come a day after the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol held its first prime-time hearing, where it laid out evidence that Trump and his allies tried to overturn the 2020 election and get a lot of his supporters to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's victory.

Giuliani, who used to be the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and the mayor of New York City, is one of Trump's most devoted supporters. He has said over and over that the election was stolen, even though he has no proof.

Giuliani made a number of legal challenges in federal court in Pennsylvania in 2020 that are at the center of the new ethics charges. The charges were sent to the Board on Professional Responsibility of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

In the complaint, it says that Giuliani tried to get an emergency order to stop the presidential election from being certified, an order to throw out the votes of some voters in seven counties, and other orders that would have let the state's assembly choose its electors and declare Trump the winner in Pennsylvania.

The charges say that his actions broke two professional conduct rules in Pennsylvania. These rules say that lawyers can't bring cases that have no basis in law or fact and that they can't act in a way that hurts the way justice is done.

Charges can lead to a lawyer's license being taken away or them being kicked out of the bar.

With these charges, a bar office is taking action against Giuliani for the second time.

In June 2021, his New York law license was taken away because he said things that were "clearly false and misleading," like that widespread voter fraud had messed up the election.

After the New York decision, Giuliani's law license in DC was put on hold for a while.

Giuliani has also had two of his law licenses taken away. His business dealings with Ukraine have also hurt his reputation, and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are looking into them.

In April 2018, he started representing Trump, a fellow Republican and New Yorker, in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election by then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Giuliani has not been accused of committing a crime. His lawyer has said that the federal investigation is being done because of politics.

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