A closer look at the defining struggles that shaped Rudy Giuliani's life and career.
Rudy Giuliani is an American politician and disbarred lawyer notable for his tenure as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. Prior to his mayoral role, he held positions as the United States Associate Attorney General (1981-1983) and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1983-1989).
After Giuliani's remarks, Moss testified before the U.S. House of Representatives that she and her family were subjected to a barrage of racist threats, including "Be glad it's 2020 and not 1920," in reference to lynching in the United States.
In late 1986, leaders of the Five Families voted on whether to issue a contract for Rudy Giuliani's death.
In January 1989, Rudy Giuliani resigned as U.S. Attorney as the Reagan administration ended. He faced criticism for his handling of cases and accusations of pursuing political ambitions through prosecutions.
In September 1989, Rudy Giuliani won the Republican Party primary election against Ronald Lauder, marked by accusations that Giuliani was not a true Republican.
According to Rudy Giuliani, the Sicilian Mafia offered $800,000 for his death during his first year as mayor of New York in 1994.
In 1994, a mayoral office study of the radios indicated that they were faulty.
In 1996, Bill Bratton was featured on the cover of Time magazine, leading to his departure as Giuliani was intolerant of his celebrity.
In March 2000, the NYPD's fatal shooting of Patrick Dorismond strained Rudy Giuliani's relations with minority communities, becoming a major campaign issue for Hillary Clinton.
By April 2000, reports showed Hillary Clinton gaining in the polls, surpassing Rudy Giuliani by eight to ten points.
In April 2000, Rudy Giuliani, at the age of 55, was diagnosed with prostate cancer after a prostate biopsy revealed an elevated screening PSA. He later recovered and became a spokesman for cancer survivors.
In 2000, Rudy Giuliani ran for a U.S. Senate seat from New York against Hillary Clinton but withdrew from the race after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
In March 2001, replacement radios were recalled after a probationary firefighter's calls for help at a house fire could not be picked up by others at the scene, leaving firemen with the old analog radios from 1993.
In May 2001, Giuliani's attorney revealed that Giuliani was impotent due to prostate cancer treatments and had not had sex with Judith Nathan for the preceding year.
In 2004, after campaigning for George W. Bush, Rudy Giuliani was reportedly the top choice for Secretary of Homeland Security, but he declined due to concerns about his past and recommended Bernard Kerik instead.
On May 24, 2006, Rudy Giuliani resigned from the Iraq Study Group (ISG), citing prior time commitments, after missing all meetings. It was later revealed that fundraising and potential presidential aspirations contributed to his decision.
In February 2007, the International Association of Fire Fighters accused Rudy Giuliani of rushing the World Trade Center recovery to recover gold and silver, which they allege prevented the recovery of victims' remains and resulted in remains being disposed of at Fresh Kills Landfill.
In June 2007, Christie Todd Whitman, former EPA director, alleged that Rudy Giuliani blocked the EPA's efforts to ensure World Trade Center workers wore respirators, which she believes led to lung disease and fatalities. Giuliani's campaign refuted this, stating workers were repeatedly instructed to wear respirators.
During the last two months of 2007, Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign faced challenges due to Bernard Kerik's indictment, scrutiny of Giuliani's mayoral expenses, and concerns about his firm's clients' alignment with American foreign policy goals, leading to a decline in poll numbers.
In 2007, the Financial Crisis began.
On January 8, 2008, Rudy Giuliani finished fourth in the New Hampshire primary, receiving only 9 percent of the vote.
On January 29, 2008, Rudy Giuliani finished third in the Florida Republican primary, with 15 percent of the vote.
In June 2008, with his campaign $3.6 million in debt, Rudy Giuliani proposed appearing at Republican fundraisers to allocate part of the proceeds to his campaign.
Following the end of his presidential campaign in 2008, Giuliani's "high appearance fees dropped like a stone".
In 2008, Rudy Giuliani ran for the Republican Party's presidential nomination but withdrew after performing poorly in the primary election.
By the end of March 2009, Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign debt was still $2.4 million in arrears, which was the largest remaining amount for any of the 2008 contenders.
Phone records showed that Rudy Giuliani made numerous phone calls in August 2019 with various individuals, including Kurt Volker, Devin Nunes, Lev Parnas, numbers associated with the Office of Management and Budget and the White House switchboard, and an unidentified White House official.
In September 2019, Rudy Giuliani, while discussing reports of a whistleblower alleging misconduct related to Ukraine, initially denied seeking an investigation into Joe Biden from Ukrainian officials, but then admitted, "Of course I did." He also appeared to confirm reports that President Trump withheld military assistance to Ukraine pending such an investigation.
In September 2019, attorneys for Dmytry Firtash obtained a statement from Viktor Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor general, asserting that Joe Biden had him fired for not ceasing his investigation into Burisma. Rudy Giuliani promoted this statement, although he claims to have no connection to Firtash.
On September 30, 2019, the House Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to Rudy Giuliani, requesting documents related to the Ukraine scandal be submitted by October 15, 2019.
On October 2, 2019, Rudy Giuliani acknowledged that he passed a packet of information regarding Ukraine and attacks on Marie Yovanovitch to Secretary of State Pompeo.
October 15, 2019, was the deadline set by the House Intelligence Committee for Rudy Giuliani to release documents pertaining to the Ukraine scandal.
In November 2019, Rudy Giuliani confirmed that he "needed Yovanovitch out of the way" because she was hindering his investigations, admitting he persuaded Trump to remove her from office.
In November 2019, The New York Times reported that Rudy Giuliani had directed Parnas to approach Firtash, proposing that Firtash could help provide damaging information on Biden.
Starting in November 2019, Rudy Giuliani began accumulating unpaid legal bills with the firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, eventually leading to a lawsuit in September 2023 for over $1.3 million.
On November 22, 2019, Rudy Giuliani sent a letter to Senator Lindsey Graham, claiming to have evidence from Ukrainian witnesses about Democratic conspiracy and Biden family crimes, seeking help to obtain U.S. visas for the witnesses to testify.
On December 3, 2019, the House Intelligence Committee's report included phone records acquired via subpoenas, including numerous phone calls made by Rudy Giuliani between April and August 2019 with various individuals.
In December 2019, Rudy Giuliani met with Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian politician later identified as a proxy of Russian intelligence who promoted misleading narratives about Joe Biden.
In December 2019, Rudy Giuliani returned to Ukraine to interview former Ukrainian officials for a documentary series aimed at discrediting the impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
In late 2019, it was reported that SDNY investigators were investigating Rudy Giuliani's activities.
In late 2019, the SDNY obtained search warrants for Rudy Giuliani's iCloud account, as part of "an ongoing, multi-year grand jury investigation."
Throughout 2019, Rudy Giuliani's actions concerning Ukraine became central to the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. His name was frequently mentioned in testimonies and reports, leading some experts to suggest he may have violated the Logan Act.
In November 2020, Trump put Giuliani in charge of lawsuits alleging voter irregularities in the 2020 United States presidential election. He led a legal team that made false assertions about an international Communist conspiracy, rigged voting machines, and polling place fraud.
On November 17, 2020, Giuliani appeared in court representing Trump's campaign in Pennsylvania, misrepresenting his bar status and struggling with legal processes. He was accused of making "disgraceful" legal arguments.
On November 21, 2020, Giuliani's federal lawsuit against Pennsylvania was dismissed with prejudice. The judge cited "strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations" which were "unsupported by evidence".
In December 2020, Rudy Giuliani gave false testimony to Georgia lawmakers about election fraud, which was later listed in the August 14, 2023 indictment against him.
In December 2020, it was reported that SDNY investigators had discussed with Justice Department officials the possibility of acquiring Rudy Giuliani's emails, which might require headquarters approval due to attorney–client privilege.
By 2023, Rudy Giuliani had reportedly incurred seven-figure legal fees in cases related to Donald Trump and the attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
In 2020, Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani again, seeking an injunction to permanently prohibit him from defaming them. They later agreed to drop this lawsuit in exchange for Giuliani's promise never again to state, imply, or assist others' remarks that they "engaged in wrongdoing in connection with the 2020 presidential election".
In 2020, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea' ArShaye Moss were subjected to a barrage of racist threats after Giuliani's remarks.
In 2020, Rudy Giuliani engaged in efforts to subvert the election, which on July 2, 2024 led to his disbarment by a New York state appeals court.
In 2020, Rudy Giuliani was involved in events related to the election in Arizona that led to later indictments in April 2024. These events include his involvement in contesting the election results.
In 2020, Rudy Giuliani was involved in making claims regarding the presidential election in Pennsylvania. These actions were considered to contain baseless claims in favor of Trump, and led to charges being filed against him in June 10, 2022.
In 2020, Rudy Giuliani's actions related to the United States presidential election were investigated, ultimately leading to the suspension of his law license in New York and Washington, D.C. in 2021.
In 2020, Rudy Giuliani's actions to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania led to the recommendation for his disbarment.
In 2020, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn investigated whether Ukrainian officials helped orchestrate a wide-ranging plan to meddle in the 2020 presidential campaign, including using Rudolph W. Giuliani to spread their misleading claims about President Biden.
On August 1, 2023, the Justice Department's special counsel investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election charged Trump with four criminal counts related to those efforts.
On January 6, 2021, Giuliani spoke at the "Save America March" rally, repeating conspiracy theories and calling for "trial by combat" before Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
By January 8, 2021, Trump and his team had lost 63 lawsuits. Giuliani's associate requested $2.5 million and a pardon for him.
On January 11, 2021, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine said that he is looking at whether to charge Giuliani, along with Donald Trump Jr. and Representative Mo Brooks, with inciting the violent attack on January 6.
In January 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit against Giuliani for his election-related lies.
On January 29, 2021, Giuliani falsely claimed that The Lincoln Project played a role in the organization of the Capitol riot, leading to a threatened defamation lawsuit.
On February 4, 2021, Smartmatic sued Giuliani, Fox News, some of its hosts, and Powell, accusing them of a disinformation campaign and seeking $2.7 billion in damages.
In February 2021, The New York Times reported that the SDNY had requested a search warrant of Rudy Giuliani's electronic records in summer 2020, but were met with resistance from high-level political appointees in the Washington headquarters.
In February 2021, The New York Times reported that the SDNY was scrutinizing Rudy Giuliani's association with Firtash in efforts to discredit the Bidens, and efforts to lobby the Trump administration on behalf of Ukrainian officials and oligarchs.
On March 5, 2021, Representative Eric Swalwell filed a civil lawsuit against Giuliani and others, seeking damages for their alleged role in inciting the Capitol riot.
In March 2021, a United States intelligence community analysis found that Ukrainian politician Andrii Derkach was among proxies of Russian intelligence who promoted and laundered misleading or unsubstantiated narratives about Biden to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals.
By April 2021, the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan was investigating the role of Rudy Giuliani and his associates in the removal of Marie Yovanovitch.
In April 2021, Forensic News reported that the SDNY investigation into Rudy Giuliani had expanded to include a criminal probe of Andrii Derkach and Andrii Artemenko.
In April 2021, Rudy Giuliani's attorney claimed investigators told him they had searched his client's iCloud account beginning in late 2019, arguing the subsequent raid was "fruit of this poisoned tree."
On the early morning of April 28, 2021, federal investigators executed search warrants at Rudy Giuliani's office and Upper East Side apartment, seizing electronic devices and searching the apartment.
In May 2021, Time reported that investigators were particularly interested in Rudy Giuliani's association with Dmytry Firtash, according to witnesses they interviewed.
In May 2021, the SDNY confirmed in a court filing that in late 2019 it obtained search warrants for Rudy Giuliani's iCloud account, as part of "an ongoing, multi-year grand jury investigation."
On June 24, 2021, a New York appellate court suspended Rudy Giuliani's law license after finding "uncontroverted" evidence that he made false statements to courts, lawmakers, and the public regarding the 2020 election.
On July 7, 2021, Rudy Giuliani's law license was also suspended in Washington, D.C., following the suspension of his license in New York due to false statements made regarding the 2020 election.
As of the end of July 2021, Trump had not given any of the money he fundraised for election-related legal fights to Giuliani.
In October 2021, Trump remarked, "I do pay my lawyers when they do a good job."
In December 2021, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea' ArShaye Moss sued Giuliani for defamation in DC, after he falsely accused them of manipulating vote tallies.
In January 2022, the special master released more than 3,000 of Rudy Giuliani's communications to prosecutors, withholding forty messages for which Giuliani had asserted "privilege and/or highly personal" status and rejecting 37 such assertions.
In March 2022, a New York State Supreme Court judge ruled that Smartmatic's defamation suit against Giuliani could proceed.
On June 10, 2022, the DC Bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel filed charges against Rudy Giuliani with the DC Court of Appeals' Board on Professional Responsibility. The ethics charges concerned Giuliani's federal court filings regarding the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania, alleging that he made baseless claims in favor of Trump.
On June 27, 2022, Rudy Giuliani was allegedly assaulted at a ShopRite supermarket in Staten Island while campaigning for his son Andrew. A supermarket employee, Daniel Gill, was arrested and charged with second-degree assault for allegedly slapping Giuliani's back.
On December 15, 2022, the D.C. Bar Disciplinary Counsel recommended that Rudy Giuliani be disbarred for violating rules of professional conduct by making false election fraud claims and attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Pennsylvania.
In February 2023, the Appellate Division reinstated two counts in the Smartmatic defamation suit against Giuliani.
In April 2023, Rudy Giuliani and his lawyer Robert Costello met twice with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago to request financial assistance. Subsequently, a Trump PAC paid $340,000 toward Giuliani's data storage bill.
On May 15, 2023, Noelle Dunphy, a former employee, filed a civil lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of sexual assault, wage theft, and unlawful abuse of power, along with allegations of a hostile work environment and other misconduct.
In May 2023, Daniel Gill, who was accused of assaulting Rudy Giuliani in June 2022, sued Giuliani for monetary damages, alleging false arrest, civil rights conspiracy, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress.
On July 7, 2023, an ad hoc hearing committee of the Board on Professional Responsibility recommended that Rudy Giuliani be disbarred.
By July 2023, Rudy Giuliani's unpaid legal bills to the firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron had reached over $1.3 million, leading to a lawsuit in September 2023.
In July 2023, Giuliani was ordered to pay attorneys' fees to the election workers after being sanctioned for failing to turn over evidence in the case.
On August 1, 2023, Trump was charged with four criminal counts related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, with Giuliani widely identified as the unnamed "Co-Conspirator 1" in the indictment.
On August 14, 2023, Rudy Giuliani, along with Donald Trump and 17 others, was indicted by a grand jury in Atlanta, Georgia, on 41 counts related to conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in favor of Trump under state racketeering laws. Giuliani's false testimony about election fraud in December 2020 was cited in the indictment. His lawyer for the arraignment was Brian Tevis.
In August 2023, Rudy Giuliani was indicted in the prosecution related to the 2020 election in Georgia.
As of August 2023, Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuits against Giuliani and Sidney Powell for their election-related lies are still active.
On August 23, 2023, Rudy Giuliani turned himself in at the Fulton County Sheriff's Office in Georgia related to the indictment for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.
In September 2023, the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron sued Rudy Giuliani for over $1.3 million in unpaid legal fees, alleging he only paid $214,000 of his total legal bill between November 2019 and July 2023.
On December 5, 2023, Giuliani did not appear at a federal court pretrial hearing. His lawyer took responsibility, while the judge criticized Giuliani's absence.
On December 15, 2023, a federal jury ordered Giuliani to pay $148 million to Freeman and Moss. He said he regretted nothing and would appeal. On December 21, he filed for bankruptcy.
In 2023, Cassidy Hutchinson's memoir Enough alleges that Rudy Giuliani groped her backstage during Donald Trump's speech on January 6, 2021.
In January 2024, Freeman and Moss accused Giuliani of taking unfair advantage of the bankruptcy system in a court filing, with their attorneys calling Giuliani's approach "a flawed, impermissible litigation tactic from an actor with a history of engaging the judicial system in bad faith."
On February 7, 2024, Rudy Giuliani stated in court that the Trump campaign and the RNC owed him about $2 million in unpaid legal fees, but he did not want to hold Donald Trump personally responsible.
In April 2024, Rudy Giuliani was among 18 people indicted on charges related to the 2020 election in Arizona.
In April 2024, Rudy Giuliani was indicted on charges related to the 2020 election in Arizona.
On May 21, 2024, Rudy Giuliani pleaded not guilty after being arraigned virtually in Maricopa County Superior Court on charges related to the 2020 election in Arizona. He was ordered to post a $10,000 bond and book himself into the custody of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
On May 31, 2024, the Board on Professional Responsibility agreed with the recommendation to disbar Rudy Giuliani.
On July 2, 2024, Rudy Giuliani was disbarred in the state of New York, following the suspension of his law license in June 2021 due to an investigation regarding his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
On July 12, 2024, Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy case was dismissed, and he was barred from filing for bankruptcy again for one year.
On September 26, 2024, Rudy Giuliani was disbarred in the District of Columbia under reciprocal discipline, following his disbarment in New York.
On January 3, 2025, Giuliani was ruled in contempt by Liman at a hearing.