Giuliani pushing a 'bogus origin story' about his RICO prosecutions: columnist

In the days since Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis indicted Rudy Giuliani and his erstwhile client ex-President Donald Trump under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act of 1970 for allegedly attempting to steal the 2020 election, the former New York City mayor has been boasting about having "dreamt up the tactic" to prosecute organized crime bosses through RICO when he was a United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. Over the weekend, however, The Daily Beast's Michael Daly explained in an opinion column why Giuliani's tales appear to be exaggerated.

"The legal eminence who actually drafted the RICO statute and a former top New York state organized crime prosecutor tell The Daily Beast that is not how it went down at all," Daly writes. "Their version suggests an added irony to the Georgia indictment: The numerous lies that Giuliani is accused of perpetrating to keep Donald Trump in office were superseded by a bogus origin story."

University of Notre Dame law professor G. Robert Blakey, who "drafted the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 on a yellow legal pad" reportedly agrees with Ron Goldstock of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force's recollection, telling the Beast that "Giuliani falsely says he got the idea of using RICO against the mob himself because he read a biography by the head of one of the crime families."

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Though Blakely previously maintained that if Giuliani "says he invented it, fine. I don't care who invented it. If he wants to take credit for it, let him take credit for it," Daly notes that his "attitude changed in the wake of the indictment." Blakely added of Giuliani, "When he said, as he's saying now, as a defendant with Trump, ‘I know more about RICO than anybody,’ I think that stretches the truth."

Daly says that "Blakey had periodically returned to Georgia to speak to state prosecutors about RICO. One of them, John Floyd, became the state's leading expert on applying its version. Giuliani and Trump should have gotten a sense of what was to come when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hired Floyd as special assistant district attorney to work on racketeering cases. Floyd reportedly was 'very hands-on,' during the grand jury presentation of the RICO case against Trump and Giuliani."

Giuliani's adviser Ted Goodman proffered a response to the criticism:

The Mayor regularly cites Professor G. Robert Blakely's contribution as a foremost authority on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO). As for Mr. Ron Goldstock, it's really a shame to see him take cheap shots at the mayor to try and boost his own public profile. Is he really arguing against Giuliani's successful track record in destroying the Mafia as we know it? The fact of the matter is that Giuliani used Mr. Bonanno's autobiography, 'A Man of Honor,' which described the commission as historical background to prove that the Mafia was in fact an organized, long-term business enterprise.

Daly concludes, "Giuliani actually might know more than anybody about RICO. After all, who else has been both a mob buster and part of a busted mob?"

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View Daly's full editorial at this link (subscription required).