Posted on 08/23/23
| News Source: Washington Post
Giuliani’s criminal booking on a $150,000 bond marked the most dramatic consequence yet for his role in trying to reverse Trump’s loss to Joe Biden nearly three years ago. Authorities in New York and Washington have sought to disbar him. He is the subject of at least three defamation lawsuits by election workers and voting technology companies. He has claimed to be financially strapped, struggling to find a lawyer in Georgia to defend him and pleading with Trump — unsuccessfully, so far — to help pay his legal bills.
Giuliani and Trump, who plans to surrender Thursday, each face 13 felony charges, more than any of the other 17 defendants in a sweeping indictment brought under Georgia’s anti-racketeering statute. Giuliani is accused of conspiring to make false statements, file false documents and commit forgery, among other charges.
Yet Giuliani turned himself in to authorities displaying the same bravado and confidence that first elevated him to stardom — and claiming that his life hasn’t changed since he took on the Mafia in the 1980s and later, as mayor, led New York out of its darkest hours following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“I’m defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” he told reporters early Wednesday. “People like to say I’m different. I’m the same Rudy Giuliani who took down the Mafia, who made New York City the safest city in America, reduced crime more than any mayor in the history of any city anywhere. I’m fighting for justice.”
Giuliani, who served for years as Trump’s personal attorney and led the former president’s effort to investigate allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, is one of nine defendants to surrender for a mug shot, fingerprinting and processing at the Fulton County jail in downtown Atlanta.
He did so, he said, “to comply with the law, as I always do.” But at the same time he accused Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D), who brought the case, of exceeding her authority and mounting a political prosecution that should frighten all Americans.