1 / 4Photo: Doug Mills/AP/TT
He was the mayor of the entire United States, prosecuted cases against the mafia and had his eye on the White House.
Now Rudy Giuliani is a criminal suspect, in debt and mocked.
– Its sad. He is not who he has been, says his ex-wife Judith Giuliani.
A buzz went through the courtroom in Washington DC on Friday, when the jury announced its decision. Rudy Giuliani, one of former President Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters, was ordered to pay $148 million to two election workers in Georgia, whom the court said he defamed.
The 79-year-old is also indicted in Georgia, suspected of trying to fake an election victory for Trump. He has also been mocked for an infamous press conference after the election loss, where what looked like hair dye ran down his face.
Celebrated mayor
It was different in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The then New York mayor Giuliani was praised for his handling of the incident, and was nicknamed “the mayor of the United States”. Time Magazine named him person of the year the same year.
– There are no similarities between the man I knew 20 years ago, the 9/11 hero, and this man. I actually feel sorry for him. Its sad. He is not the person he once was to any of us, his ex-wife Judith Giuliani said recently in an interview with the AP.
Giuliani has been described as fearless. He was in the 1980s, when as a federal prosecutor he prosecuted cases against the mafia in the United States. He was fearless as mayor, and was even praised by the opposition for cleaning up street crime, although police brutality was later also criticized.
Suffered from cancer
After the years as mayor of New York, the political career looked bright, but he was forced to withdraw from the Senate election in 2000, against Hillary Clinton, when he suffered from prostate cancer.
In 2008, he looked even higher, towards the White House itself. But he did not become one of the top names in the Republican primary election battle, which was ultimately won by John McCain.
After a few years in the shadows, he stepped back into the spotlight, betting what political capital he had left on a high-roller – the controversial but charismatic real estate magnate Donald Trump.
“Reduced figure”
Trump’s victory meant no cabinet post, as Giuliani had hoped for, but attention and free rein in the corridors of power. He became a kind of “attack dog”, which was sent out to look for scandals about the activities of the political opponent Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden in Ukraine.
Andrew Kirtzman, author of a biography of Giuliani, describes the ex-mayor’s fearlessness as leading to a recklessness that was perhaps most evident after Trump’s 2020 election loss. According to the court in Washington, DC, he apparently went too far on allegations of election fraud against a mother and daughter. He is also charged with trying to reverse the election loss, and faces a long line of legal cases.
Even before the damages, equivalent to SEK 1.5 billion, to the mother and daughter were awarded, Giuliani was financially bankrupt. He is said to have begged money from a reluctant Donald Trump, his consulting company has not paid his phone bill and his former lawyer has sued him for non-payment. The apartment in New York is up for sale, but has proven to be a difficult sell.
“Now he is a diminished figure fishing to persuade jurors and prosecutors to keep him off the road to prison,” Kirtzman writes in The Washington Post.