Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (/ˌdʒuːliˈɑːni/ JOO-lee-AH-nee, Italian: [dʒuˈljaːni]; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983 and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989.[1][2]
Rudy Giuliani
Giuliani led the 1980s federal prosecution of New York City mafia bosses as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.[3][4] After a failed campaign for Mayor of New York City in the 1989 election, he succeeded in 1993, and was reelected in 1997, campaigning on a "tough on crime" platform.[1][5] He led New York's controversial "civic cleanup" from 1994 to 2001.[1][6] and appointed William Bratton as New York City's new police commissioner.[5] In 2000, he ran against First Lady Hillary Clinton for a U.S. Senate seat from New York, but left the race once diagnosed with prostate cancer.[7][8] For his mayoral leadership after the September 11 attacks in 2001, he was called "America's mayor"[5] and was named Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2001.[9][10]
In 2002, Giuliani founded a security consulting business, Giuliani Partners,[1] and acquired, but later sold, an investment banking firm, Giuliani Capital Advisors. In 2005, he joined a law firm, renamed Bracewell & Giuliani.[1] Vying for the Republican Party's 2008 presidential nomination, Giuliani was an early frontrunner[11] yet did poorly in the primary election; he later withdrew and endorsed the party's subsequent nominee, John McCain.[5] Declining to run for New York governor in 2010 and for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, Giuliani focused on the activities of his business firms.[1][12][13]
After advising him during his 2016 campaign and early administration, Giuliani joined President Donald Trump's personal legal team in April 2018, remaining on it during the 2020 election. His activities as Trump's attorney have led to allegations that he engaged in corruption and profiteering.[4][10][14] In 2019, Giuliani was a central figure in the Trump–Ukraine scandal.[14][15] Following the 2020 presidential election, he represented Trump in many lawsuits filed in attempts to overturn the election results, making false and debunked allegations about rigged voting machines,[16][17] polling place fraud,[18] and an international communist conspiracy.[17][19] Giuliani spoke at the rally preceding the January 6 United States Capitol attack where he made false claims of voter fraud and called for "trial by combat".[20] Later, he was also listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal prosecution of Trump's alleged attempts to overturn the election.[21][22][23] On August 14, 2023, he was indicted in the prosecution related to the 2020 election in Georgia,[24][25][26][27][28] Later in 2023, Giuliani lost $148 million in a defamation lawsuit regarding his false claims about two election workers in Georgia, and subsequently declared bankruptcy.[29]
Early life
Giuliani was born in 1944 in the East Flatbush section when it was an Italian-American enclave in New York City's borough of Brooklyn. He is the only child of working-class parents Helen (née D'Avanzo; 1909–2002) and Harold Angelo Giuliani (1908–1981), both children of Italian immigrants.[30] Giuliani is of Tuscan descent on his father's side, as his paternal grandparents (Rodolfo and Evangelina Giuliani) were born in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, Italy.[31] He was raised a Roman Catholic.[32] Harold Giuliani, a plumber and a bartender,[33] had trouble holding a job, was convicted of felony assault and robbery, and served prison time in Sing Sing.[34] Once released, he worked as an enforcer for his brother-in-law Leo D'Avanzo, who operated an organized crime-affiliated loan sharking and gambling ring at a restaurant in Brooklyn.[35] The couple lived in East Flatbush until Harold died of prostate cancer in 1981.[36]
When Giuliani was seven years old, his family moved from Brooklyn to Garden City South, where he attended the local Catholic school, St. Anne's.[37] Later, he commuted back to Brooklyn to attend Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, graduating in 1961.[38]
Giuliani attended Manhattan College in Riverdale, Bronx, where he majored in political science with a minor in philosophy[39] and considered becoming a priest.[39]
Giuliani was elected president of his class in his sophomore year, but was not re-elected in his junior year. He joined the Phi Rho Pi college forensic fraternity and honor society. He graduated in 1965. Giuliani decided to forgo the priesthood and instead attended the New York University School of Law in Manhattan, where he was a member of the NYU Law Review[39] and graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor degree in 1968.[40]
Giuliani started his political life as a Democrat. He volunteered for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968. He also worked as a Democratic Party committeeman on Long Island in the mid-1960s[41][42] and voted for George McGovern for president in 1972.[43]
House of Savoy: Knight Grand Cross (motu proprio) of the Order of Merit of Savoy (December 2001)[555]
For his leadership on and after September 11, Giuliani was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on February 13, 2002.[556][557]
He was awarded Medal of Heroism by President of the Czech Republic Václav Havel on October 28, 2002.[558]
