“This indictment is a travesty,” the former mayor of New York lambasted on his release from Fulton prison in Atlanta. Wednesday, August 23, Rudy Giuliani left this penitentiary of the State of Georgia after being officially constituted prisoner with the authorities.
His express passage in prison was mandatory: since August 14, this former lawyer for Donald Trump is one of 18 people charged in this state in the south-east of the United States for having attempted to illegally reverse the local results of the election. 2020 presidential election, won by current President Joe Biden. A list of defendants which also includes the former US president.
If Rudy Giuliani was able to leave Georgian prison free, with a bail of 150,000 dollars, he risks between five and twenty years in prison if convicted. The ex-lawyer was also entitled to his “mugshot” in prison. Back on the case that could lead to the fall of this figure of American politics.
Illegal lies in the Georgia Senate
Although the former lawyer denounces “one of the worst attacks on the American Constitution” at the microphone of the dozens of journalists present when he leaves Fulton prison, he is nevertheless prosecuted under a gang delinquency law organized.
In the aftermath of the 2020 elections, Rudy Giuliani indeed plays a major role in questioning the victory of Joe Biden, as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. Beyond his unwavering support for the American president, the former mayor of New York will above all “lead the legal efforts in several states to challenge the victory of Joe Biden”, recalls the American daily New York Times.
In particular in Georgia, a key American state in the election, won by the current president by 10,000 votes. On December 3, 2020, Rudy Giuliani thus declared to the Georgian Senate Judiciary Committee that “there are ten ways to demonstrate that this election was stolen, that the votes were wrong, that there were many – deaths, criminals, fake ballots”, quotes the American media.
Problem: It is illegal in Georgia to make false statements “on any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the state government or the government of any county, city, or other political subdivision,” says the New York Times.
The fall of a figure in American politics
Based on these false statements, as well as on its role in the project to send supporters of Donald Trump to Congress to put pressure on the Georgian authorities, the American state has therefore chosen to indict Rudy Giuliani. If he has never ceased to denounce lawsuits that “criminalize” freedom of expression, this indictment nevertheless marks a new stage in the fall of this former star of American politics.
Rudy Giuliani was indeed the emblematic mayor of New York from 1994 to 2001, notably managing the consequences of the terrorist attacks of September 11. If he also made himself known as a federal prosecutor “in racketeering cases” against the mafia, recalls the New York Times, “he now faces a racketeering charge himself”. Likewise, his lies to the Georgia Senate later played a major role in the New York State’s decision to suspend his attorney’s licenseend of June 2021.
Financial setbacks
In addition, his unwavering support for Donald Trump has also cost him economically. Mid August, THE New York Times revealed that Rudy Giuliani was facing financial difficulties because of “escalating legal costs, many of which relate to his efforts to keep Donald Trump in power for another term after the 2020 defeat.” The American daily even suggests that his relatives would have begged the billionaire to organize the fundraiser scheduled for next month to help his former lawyer.
The former mayor of New York, however, is not the only one to suffer dishonor as a result of his actions after the 2020 election: all 19 defendants indicted by Georgia state authorities have up to Friday noon to report to Fulton Jail.
Including the most famous of these defendants, Donald Trump. The former American president thus makes a quick visit to this penitentiary establishment, this Thursday, where he should be placed under arrest and then leave free after the payment of his bail of 200,000 dollars. A mandatory step before the trial of the Georgia defendants, supposed to begin no later than November 3.
Although this is the ex-president’s fourth criminal charge in a few months, the Republican party favorite for the 2024 presidential election could this time face the affront of the “mugshot”, the usual prisoner photo in the United States . Something to shake up the 2024 campaign a little more, the day after the first debate of the Republican candidates for the nomination.