(Bloomberg) -- A disciplinary board in Washington on Friday recommended that Rudy Giuliani, a former lawyer and ally to Donald Trump, should be disbarred for frivolously arguing the 2020 presidential election was stolen. 

The Board on Professional Responsibility concluded that Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, made unsupported claims as he unsuccessfully argued that election officials in Pennsylvania had failed to protect against voter fraud.

“He urged a federal judge to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania voters even though he had no objectively reliable evidence that any such scheme existed, or even that any illegal mail-in ballots had been counted,” wrote the board, which acts as the disciplinary arm of the DC Court of Appeals. 

“We conclude that disbarment is the only sanction that will protect the public, the courts, and the integrity of the legal profession, and deter other lawyers from launching similarly baseless claims in the pursuit of such wide-ranging yet completely unjustified relief,” the panel wrote.

This is the second-to-last step toward Giuliani’s official disbarment in Washington. The case now goes to the DC Court of Appeals for a final ruling.

Giuliani had contested a previous report released last year finding he committed misconduct by pursuing “destructive” court challenges to President Joe Biden’s win in Pennsylvania. Disbarment is the most severe possible punishment. Giuliani’s law license has been temporarily suspended since 2021.

Ted Goodman, an adviser to Giuliani, labeled the recommendation a partisan effort by Democrats aimed at discouraging lawyers from representing “Trump or anyone else who is willing to take on the prevailing political establishment.”

“We recognize that disbarment has not been imposed in other frivolous litigation cases, but none of those cases involve the aggravating factors presented here,” the board wrote.

In the wake of the 2020 election, Giuliani worked with other lawyers to file suits challenging the results in multiple states on behalf of then-President Trump. Giuliani and his lawyers have defended his work, arguing his legal strategy was legitimate and reasonable. 

(Updates with Giuliani adviser’s response in seventh paragraph.)

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