Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (born May 28, 1944) is an American attorney who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1970-1975, Associate Deputy Attorney General from 1975-1977, United States Associate Attorney General of the United States from 1981 to 1983, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989 and Mayor of New York City from1994 to 2001.
Giuliani as U.S. Attorney led the 1980s federal prosecution of New York City mafia bosses as well as hundreds of Mafia members in the United States and Italy. He pioneered the use of the RICO statute to take massive businesses away from not only the Mafia but other organized crime and illegal drug groups, crooked Wall Street con men, corrupt politicians from Congresspeople to many city, state and federal officials. He also prosecuted Nazi war criminals, terrorists, Colombian and other drug dealers. He successfully removed organized crime dominance from Las Vegas casinos by deposing the entire leadership of the Teamsters Union. His record in that office is one of the most successful ever. He is considered one of the most successful prosecutors in the history of the United States.
His tenure as Mayor Of New York is possibly even more historic. In two terms he transformed New York City from the crime capital of America to the safest large city in the U.S. The city went from a city where 75% of the residents wanted to leave the city and even more viewing it as seriously going in the wrong direction. Under Giuliani the decline in crime was larger than any in history. The decline in welfare was as impressive with most of the hundreds of thousands of people moving from dependency on other taxpayers to having gainful employment, which increased their self-worth. Unemployment declined dramatically, jobs and new businesses boomed, surpluses were created and by the late 1990s over 75% of the city residents now wanted to remain in New York and saw the city as going in the right direction. This record was so thorough and impressive that by 2000, Mayor Giuliani was considered by many as the most successful mayor in history.
However, his leadership of the city during the Islamic extremist terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 was a textbook exercise in inspired leadership under catastrophic attack. Having almost died himself trapped in a building near the collapse, he and his equally courageous and capable staff worked their way out to conduct a response and recovery effort that inspired the nation and the world.
He was named by Oprah Winfrey AMERICA’S MAYOR, he was knighted by the Queen of England, he was named Time Person of the Year and the recipient of similar honors from nations throughout the world.
In 2002, Giuliani founded a business, crisis management and security consulting firm, Giuliani Partners. Within a brief time, Giuliani was named consultant of the year. He also built a successful New York office for the Houston law firm then named Bracewell, Giuliani. Now he continues Giuliani Partners and practices law as Rudolph Giuliani, PLLC. He is also the Chairman of Giuliani Media, has a twice weekly podcast called Common Sense and a daily and Sunday radio show on WABC.
In 2007-2008 he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Party’s nomination for President. In addition, he was and continues to be an active public speaker for politics, charity and business. Giuliani played an instrumental role in Donald J. Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns for President. He acted as the President’s personal attorney through two impeachments and the dispute over the 2020 elections.
Early life
Giuliani was born in the Flatbush section, then an Italian American enclave, in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn the only child of working-class parents Helen (née D’Avanzo; 1909–2002) and Harold Angelo Giuliani (1908–1981), both children of Italian immigrants.
When Giuliani was seven years old in 1951, his family moved from Brooklyn to Garden City South where he attended the local Catholic school, St. Anne’s.
Later, having won a scholarship to Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School he commuted back to Brooklyn for four years graduating in 1961.
Giuliani attended Manhattan College in Riverdale Bronx, where he majored in political science with a minor in philosophy. Giuliani was elected president of his class in his sophomore 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 made the NYU Law Review and graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor degree in 1968.
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 committee member on Long Island in the mid-1960s and voted for George McGovern for president in 1972.
Legal career
Upon graduation from law school, Giuliani clerked for Judge Lloyd Francis MacMahon, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
In 1975, Giuliani switched his party registration from Democratic to Independent.
His first high-profile prosecution was of Democratic U.S. Representative Bertram L. Podell, who was convicted of corruption. In the middle of Giuliani’s withering cross examination Podell pleaded guilty to conspiracy and conflict of interest for accepting more than $41,000 in campaign contributions and legal fees from a Florida airline to obtain federal rights for a Bahama route. The Washington Post later reported: “The trial catapulted future New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani to front-page status when, as assistant U.S. attorney, he relentlessly cross-examined an initially calm Rep. Podell. The congressperson reportedly grew more flustered and eventually decided to plead guilty.” Giuliani was considered a very skilled trial lawyer and a particularly gifted cross-examiner.
From 1977 to 1981, Giuliani became a partner at the law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler. His skills as a litigator led to many victories in court. The most noteworthy was the dismissal of an insider trading conspiracy against Barron’s magazine which was so definitive that the court awarded legal fees.
In 1981, Giuliani was named Associate Attorney General in the Reagan administration, the third-highest position in the Department of Justice. As Associate Attorney General, Giuliani supervised the U.S. Attorney Offices’ federal law enforcement agencies, the Department of Corrections, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Marshals Service.
In 1983, Giuliani was appointed to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York which was technically a demotion but was sought by Giuliani because of his desire to personally litigate cases and because he considered the United States Attorney’s Office his professional home. It was in this position that he first gained national prominence by prosecuting many high-profile cases, resulting in the convictions of Wall Street figures Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken. He also focused on prosecuting drug dealers, organized crime, and corruption in government. He amassed a record of 4,152 convictions and 25 reversals. As a federal prosecutor, Giuliani was credited with pioneering the use of the RICO statute to decimate the Mafia. He then successfully used this statue against Wall Street, other corrupt businesspeople, crooked federal, state and local public officials, other organized crime groups in particular the Colombian cartels. On one occasion the Mafia Commission which he destroyed using RICO; voted 3-2 on a contract to kill him. Earlier a contract by the Sicilian Mafia and later by an American organized crime figure were unsuccessful. He has twice been the target of unsuccessful Iranian bomb plots. One plot was focused on a New Year’s celebration in Tirana, Albania and another meeting of 100,000 freedom loving Iranian dissidents in Paris, France. He has also received many less prominent threats from Islamic extremists to the Colombian FARC.
Giuliani continues to practice law and is well respected for his legal knowledge.
He also has an extraordinarily successful bi-weekly video and audio podcast, a daily radio show and a unique Sunday show with Dr. Maria Ryan,”Uncovering the Truth.” The radio shows are broadcast by WABC.
In 2018 Giuliani was asked to lead President Trump’s legal team during the Mueller investigation. He is widely credited with turning that investigation around by effectively pointing out all the misconduct of the Mueller team and the Trump hating Democrats. His thorough investigation helped to prove that both the allegations concerning Russian collusion and allegations the conversation with the Ukrainian President were orchestrated Democrat frame-ups of the President. Indeed, those two charges could be described as ‘Democrat projection’ since Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden received millions from Russians who were remarkably close to Vladimir Putin.
Giuliani has been a target of several ‘smear’ campaigns. Despite that, he continues to expose corruption. He values law enforcement and fighting for the ‘little guy’.