More than 1,500 attorneys, including retired judges and state supreme court justices; former ABA and Bar association presidents; and legal scholars have called on local bar associations to disavow the efforts of lame-duck president Donald Trump’s legal team to undermine the 2020 election and disenfranchise tens of millions of voters.

The bipartisan group Lawyers Defending American Democracy issued the letter, calling into the question the legal basis for Trump’s lawyers’ arguments and noting that the lawyers have issued false and misleading public statements while not being able to support those arguments in courts.

“A license to practice law is not a license to lie to the public on behalf of a client, whether doing so endangers one individual or the entire body politic,” the letter says. “Indeed, American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct 4.1(a) and 8.4(c) put lawyers at risk of sanctions for engaging in dishonesty, deceit and misrepresentation — in or out of court. Under Rule 3.1, lawyers filing frivolous claims are also subject to sanctions.”

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly stated that he has evidence of thousands of dead people voting and of “major fraud,” in public statements, but in Court, Giuliani had repeated the position of the Trump legal team that there was no fraud in the election.

“The conduct of Mr. Giuliani and his colleagues is a disgrace. As 25 former DC Bar presidents stated on December 1, it is indefensible for lawyers to falsely proclaim widespread voting fraud, submit a pattern of frivolous court claims and actively seek to undermine citizens’ faith in our election’s integrity,” the open letter states.

The signatories call for state and local bar associations to engage in disciplinary action for all lawyers making such unsubstantiated claims.

“We urge all lawyers and bar associations to publicly condemn this conduct and bar disciplinary authorities to investigate it. Silence and inaction are not options.”