Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani (28 May 1944-) was Mayor of New York City (R) from 1 January 1994 to 31 December 2001, succeeding David Dinkins and preceding Michael Bloomberg. Giuliani was popular for improving the quality of life in the city, decreasing the violent crime rate, prosecuting the American Mafia, and leading the city during its recovery from the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Biography
Rudy Giuliani was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York City on 28 May 1944, the son of two first-generation Italian-Americans. Giuliani graduated from Manhattan College in 1965, and he decided to forego his initial aspirations to become a priest, instead graduating from the New York University School of Law in 1968. He started his political life as a Democratic Party supporter, volunteering for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968, working as a Democratic committeeman on Long Island, and voting for George McGovern during the United States presidential election, 1972.
Giuliani during the 1980s
During the 1970s, Giuliani began to work for the government as a staff member and an Associate Deputy Attorney General, and he became an independent in 1975 and a Republican Party voter in 1980. In 1981, he became Associate Attorney General during Ronald Reagan's administration, holding the third-highest position in the Justice Department. He served in this post until 1983, when he became the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Giuliani prosecuted pivotal cases against the American Mafia and corrupt corporate financiers, making him a popular man in New York City.
America's Mayor
In 1994, Giuliani was elected Mayor of New York City, and he hired Bill Bratton as police commissioner; Bratton punished the smallest crimes such as vandalism and window breaking in order to create an atmosphere of law and order, as larger crimes would be deterred. Giuliani improved the quality of life in the city and lowered the rate of violent crimes, and he ran for the US Senate in 2000. However, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and he dropped out of the race. He also gained the respect of the people of New York City for leading the city's recovery from 9/11 in the last year of his tenure, 2001.
Fall from grace
Giuliani's 23 August 2023 mugshot
In 2002, Giuliani founded his own security consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, and he became a successful businessman. During 2008, he sought the Republican nomination for president, and he was an early front-runner; however, he later withdrew to endorse John McCain. In 2017, Donald Trump named Giuliani his informal cybersecurity adviser, and Giuliani joined Trump's personal legal team in April 2018. In this capacity, Giuliani engaged in corruption, profiteering, and the promotion of conspiracy theories, and his associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were at the center of the 2019 Trump-Ukraine scandal. Following the 2020 presidential election, Trump represented Trump in many lawsuits filed in attempts to overturn the election, fabricating stories about voting machines being rigged, polling place fraud, and an international communist conspiracy to elect Democrat Joe Biden. He also called for "trial by combat" in a speech just moments before the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol in 2021, and his license to practice law was suspended in New York in June 2021 and in Washington DC in July 2021. On 1 August 2023, Giuliani was among five co-conspirators named in the federal indictment of Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and he was indicted in Georgia on 15 August 2023 and booked on 23 August.