2023-08-20 18:33:00
Trump’s judicial problems: Which charges are dangerous for him?
Rudy Giuliani tied his fate to Donald Trump – and is now his most prominent co-defendant. Instead of becoming an elder statesman, the once celebrated politician became a laughing stock. How might this happen?
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Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is being charged along with former US President Donald Trump as “America’s mayor” for conspiring with Trump to undermine President Joe Biden’s election victory of September 11, 2001 for its crisis management, has long since gambled away its good reputation and made a laughing stock of itself around the world.
Rudy Giuliani glared in the courtroom as a prosecutor sought a disqualification for the former New York City mayor. Prosecutor Hamilton Fox asked: How did the politician once celebrated as “America’s mayor” become a man who wants to overturn a presidential election? “It’s like they’re two different people,” Fox said at the hearing last December.
Giuliani, who was celebrated for his crisis management following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has long since lost his good reputation. And now his freedom is at stake, too, following adamantly defending ex-President Donald Trump’s false claims regarding the 2020 election.
Rudy Giuliani was once revered across America.
Robert Bumsted/AP/dpa
New low
On Monday, the nearly 80-year-old Giuliani’s crash hit a new low with an indictment in Georgia. The Republican is accused of conspiring with Trump to undermine President Joe Biden’s election victory. Both politicians were charged along with 17 other suspects. Giuliani described the charges as an “affront to American democracy.” It will do irreversible damage to the US judicial system, he said.
How might it come to this? Experts who have studied Giuliani’s rise and fall see his failed 2008 presidential bid as a turning point. Given his popularity following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he had entered the race as a favorite for the Republican nomination. But because of some liberal positions in the past, he was not able to assert himself in the primaries.
Trump relied on Giuliani’s skill and loyalty
Then for a few years it seemed as if his political career was over. Giuliani became depressed and went to Florida with his then-wife Judith. According to biographer Andrew Kirtzman, the couple stayed there for a month in a bungalow on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. “Trump took Giuliani under his wing at a very hurtful moment,” says Kirtzman, whose second Giuliani biography was published last year. “And then in 2016 Trump decided to run for the presidency and he needed Giuliani and Giuliani needed Trump.”
Trump, running for political office for the first time, relied on Giuliani’s skill and loyalty. He harnessed the former New York mayor to attacks on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Giuliani’s opponent in a 2000 Senate election.
Giuliani competed for posts in Trump’s cabinet
The 2016 election campaign brought Giuliani back into prominence. However, he surprised many with the aggressiveness of his attacks on Clinton and his frequent allegations that she had committed crimes. It was felt by some that he was jeopardizing his image as an elder statesman for a candidate who was given little chance of winning at the time.
Giuliani vied for a post in Trump’s cabinet, but got nothing. Instead, he continued to serve as his attack dog. In this role, he traveled to Ukraine, among other places, to collect defamatory information regarding Biden’s son Hunter. His contacts there later played a role in Trump’s first impeachment trial and sparked an FBI investigation. In April 2021, officers confiscated computers and cellphones during raids on Giuliani’s home and office. The investigation was later dropped without charges being brought.
From the point of view of some of his companions who used to be close to the politician, the Giuliani of today has little in common with the man of yesteryear. “The man I knew 20 years ago, the hero of 9/11 bears no resemblance to this man,” says his ex-wife Judith Giuliani, who was by his side following the terrorist attacks and his 2008 election defeat. “I’m sorry. It is sad. For all of us, he’s not the person he used to be.”
When Trump lost the 2020 election, Giuliani played an important role in his efforts to remain in the White House. According to prosecutors, illegal attempts to falsify results in important US states were also involved. Giuliani became a laughingstock for holding a press conference at a hotel next to a crematorium and a porn shop. A few weeks later, he became an internet meme when his hair color apparently ran down his face at another press conference.
And for making inflammatory remarks to Trump supporters before the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Giuliani eventually lost his license to practice law. Financially, following three divorces, he seems to be in trouble and in debt. In July, he put his Manhattan condo up for sale for $6.5 million.
“His legacy is in tatters,” says Kirtzman. Giuliani has run out of money, faces imprisonment and will “never change his belief that he was right and everyone else was wrong”.
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