'Involved in every step': Why America’s mayor 'now faces a reckoning with the law'

03 August 2023

Rudy Giuliani — once renowned as "America's mayor" after leading New York City through the trauma of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks — is reported to be the individual listed as unnamed "Co-Conspirator 1" in United States Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith's four-federal-felony-count indictment against former President Donald Trump for allegedly concocting a conspiracy to supplant American democracy and remain in power following his defeat in the 2020 election.

On Wednesday evening, correspondents Jonah Bromwich and Maggie Haberman of The New York Timesexplained how Trump's erstwhile personal lawyer "figures in each of the three conspiracies it alleges took place — leaving open the possibility that Mr. Giuliani could be charged himself."

Giuliani, "who made his name as a lawman," Bromwich wrote, "now faces a reckoning with the law."

Smith's complaint claims that Giuliani "was involved in every step," Bromwich noted. "He bullied and cajoled officials in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; helped convene slates of fraudulent electors to cast ballots for Mr. Trump; falsely claimed that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to overturn the election; and, finally, called lawmakers after the attack on the Capitol, asking that they delay the election's certification."

Although Giuliani's attorneys maintain that their client is an innocent victim of a "two-tiered justice system — one for the regime in power and the other for anyone who dares to oppose the ruling regime," Bromwich pointed out that Giuliani willingly engaged "in the legal travails" of Trump. These include Trump's attempt to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for dirt on President Joe Biden — for which Trump was impeached — to spearheading Trump's efforts to cast doubt on Biden's 2020 victory.

"FBI agents searched his home and office, seizing cellphones and computers. The federal investigation into Mr. Giuliani's actions in Ukraine ended in 2022 with no charges, but he was sued by voting machine companies that he claimed had helped engineer Mr. Biden's victory," Bromwich recalled. "In June, his law license was suspended in connection with the statements he made about the 2020 election. Mr. Giuliani's legal bills piled up. Mr. Trump was declining to pay him even as Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, investigated him for his attempts to overturn the election in Georgia."

Bromwich's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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