Trump Lawyers Who Were Disbarred or Had Law Licenses Suspended

Kenneth Chesebro on Thursday became the latest ex-lawyer of former President Donald Trump to lose their law license in connection to working for the Republican presidential nominee.

A New York appeals court suspended Chesebro’s law license in the state, citing his guilty plea in the Fulton County district attorney’s sprawling racketeering case against Trump and his allies, related to efforts to subvert the 2020 election results in Georgia.

Chesebro and 18 codefendants, including Trump, were charged “in a scheme to submit false election results to Congress concerning the 2020 presidential election.”

In October 2023, Chesebro pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

Chesebro and two others were also charged with forgery in Wisconsin earlier this year, accused of sending false slates of electors to Congress in efforts to block it from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Chesebro isn’t the only ex-Trump lawyer to be disbarred or lose their law license related to their work for the former president.

Rudy Giuliani

In July, former New York City Mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was disbarred in New York over his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election.

Giuliani made “demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers, and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020,” the New York appeals court wrote in its ruling.

Two months later, Giuliani was disbarred in Washington, D.C.

The former New York mayor and U.S. attorney spearheaded the Trump campaign’s lawsuits challenging the 2020 election results in multiple states.

Giuliani faces criminal cases in Georgia and Arizona as a result, as well as defamation lawsuits from the voting technology companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, which have accused him of falsely claiming they helped rig the 2020 election against Trump.

But legal troubles haven’t tamed Giuliani. On Sunday, he spoke during Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, where he hurled xenophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric, including claiming that “Palestinians are taught to kill us at 2 years old.”

Michael Cohen

Another lawyer stripped of his rights to practice law in New York as a result of his work for Trump was Michael Cohen, Trump’s onetime fixer and confidant turned critic.

The New York State Supreme Court disbarred Cohen in 2019 after he pleaded guilty in two separate cases related to his work for the former president.

In August 2018, he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bank fraud, tax evasion and campaign-finance violations in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s investigation into Trump’s business dealings during the 2016 election.

Three months later, Cohen also pleaded guilty to one count of lying to Congress in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. New York’s Supreme Court cited Cohen’s guilty plea for false statements as the basis for his disbarment in the state.

Cohen has since become one of Trump’s harshest critics, testifying against his former boss in Congress, Manhattan criminal court and civil court.

Trump offers his “sycophants” a “small taste” of the “fame and notoriety” they desire, Cohen told Newsweek this month.

But Trump won’t offer them “a plate at the dinner table,” he said. “He eats alone.”

John Eastman

Conservative lawyer John Eastman was suspended from practicing law in California and temporarily suspended from practicing in Washington, D.C., related to his role in attempts to nullify results of the 2020 election.

Eastman was among the codefendants charged in the Fulton County district attorney’s racketeering case, and California State Bar Court Judge Yvette Roland recommended in March that Eastman be disbarred. Eastman said he plans to appeal.

Roland also denied Eastman’s request to lift his license suspension in California, saying he failed “to demonstrate that he no longer presents a threat to the public.”

Jenna Ellis

Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis’ license to practice law was suspended after she pleaded guilty in the Fulton County district attorney’s racketeering case against the former president and his allies.

Ellis pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. Her law license in Colorado was suspended in May, and she’s barred from practicing in the state for three years.

Prosecutors alleged that Ellis spread falsehoods when she claimed that thousands of felons, minors and dead people voted in Georgia in the 2020 election and that Biden’s victory in the state should be invalidated as a result.

“The false statements were made with reckless disregard for the truth,” Daysha Young, prosecutor in the Fulton County district attorney’s office, said at Ellis’ plea hearing.