Rudy Giuliani.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has had a high-profile ride from lawyer to New York politician to presidential candidate to President Donald Trump’s personal attorney and cable-news defender.
He’s also been a larger-than-life public presence who’s dabbled in drag, led the country through the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and was a central figure in Trump’s impeachment inquiry.
When Giuliani was booed at a Yankees game in 2018, it became clear he had taken on a new reputation that was far from being “America’s Mayor” who showed courageous leadership after the 9/11 attacks.
Here’s a look at his journey, in photos.
Rudolph Giuliani was born on May 28, 1944 in Brooklyn, New York. Raised on Long Island, Giuliani went on to attend the Bronx’s Manhattan College before graduating magna cum laude from New York University School of Law in 1968.
Giuliani is the grandson of Italian immigrants, born to a working-class family comprised of firemen and policemen, which he said gave him an appreciation for public servants. “I grew up with uniforms all around me and their stories of heroism,” Giuliani has said.
Members of the New York City Fire Department march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade March 17, 2008 in New York City.
Stephen Chernin/AP
Giuliani’s first marriage lasted 14 years before it was annulled after he discovered he was second cousins with his wife, Regina Peruggi.
Regina Peruggi, President of Kingsborough College, delivers address at the college’s June 2008 commencement ceremony.
Hansepoo via Wikimedia Commons
In April 1984, Giuliani married Donna Hanover on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The couple later had two children: Andrew and Carolin.
Rudolph Giuliani holds up his three-year-old son Andrew at a news conference where he announced his candidacy for New York City mayor, Wednesday, May 17, 1989.
Mario Suriani/AP
Giuliani was a popular politician and first elected New York City mayor in 1993.
New York City Mayor-elect Rudy Giuliani and former Mayor John Lindsay
Ed Bailey/AP
He was the first Republican elected to the office since 1965.
His administration had a strong effect on New York’s unprecedented crime rates …
Giuliani gestures as he announces that New York City appears to be leading the nation’s fight against crime.
Todd Plitt/AP
… and had a strong public image because of his participation in events like New York’s annual roast of the mayor, at which he appeared as his alter ego, Rudy Rudia.
He was recognized as a brave leader for New Yorkers and the country after the 9/11 attacks, earning the nickname “America’s Mayor”.
Robert D. Ward/Department of Defense
He even was widely favored to be the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.
Republican presidential hopeful, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaking at the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference.
Susan Walsh/AP
But his campaign proved disastrous after a series of missteps including ignoring primaries before Florida, relatively liberal policies, and a complicated family image, causing him to fall from the top of the polls.
Republican presidential hopeful, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, speaks during a press availability, September 20, 2007 in Reston, Virginia.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
But since his exit from his widely popular time as a political candidate, his public image has grown somewhat bizarre.
Rudy Giuliani in 2009.
Kathy Willens/AP
Ahead of the 2016 election, he made repeated aggressive public comments against former President Barack Obama “doesn’t love America” and pushed propaganda to make “people hate the police”.
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to officers at the First Precinct New York City police station in lower Manhattan as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) looks on in New York, May 5, 2011.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
He cut a kooky figure when he was pictured wearing Apple AirPods sideways in May 2018.
Rudy Giuliani and Rick Wilson.
Rick Wilson/Twitter
Giuliani joined, then quickly misstepped, as part of President Donald Trump’s legal team.
Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Over the course of the second year of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Giuliani was often at the forefront of changing narratives from Trump’s camp on key points of the probe.
Giuliani grew to be a controversial figure after growing closer to the Trump administration and its scandals. Notably, he was booed at a Yankees game after a stadium-wide announcement wished him a happy birthday.
In one of his many lively television appearances, Giuliani perplexed “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd in August 2018 with a claim that Mueller could trap Trump in an interview because “truth isn’t truth.”
Rudy Giuliani appears on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with host Chuck Todd on August 19, 2018.
NBC
Later in August 2018, Giuliani was the first among Trump’s associates to admit that the the controversial 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between campaign officials and a Kremlin-linked attorney was to get “dirt” on his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Rudy Giuliani.
Screenshot via NBC
Giuliani later waved off investigators’ focus on Trump’s contact with Russians as a whole, saying that even if there was collusion, “collusion isn’t a crime.”
Rudy Giuliani.
AP Photo/Charles Krupa
By December 2018, Giuliani had also dismissed payments meant to silence women who said they had affairs with Trump, one of whom was porn star Stormy Daniels, as “not a crime,” days after Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen was sentenced in part for facilitating the payments.
Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.
Mary Altaffer/AP, both
Giuliani was at the center of the Ukraine scandal that prompted the House to launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump. A memo of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed Trump said Giuliani would give him a call to talk about Joe Biden’s alleged corruption, which hasn’t been substantiated.
A whistleblower complaint said Giuliani was a “central figure” in Trump “pressuring a foreign president to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals.”
Rudy Giuliani.
AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Giuliani said he’d be the “hero” in the scandal and called the whistleblower complaint “crap”. House Democrats wanted to bring him in for questioning in the impeachment inquiry, but he never testified.
Rudy Giuliani on Fox News with host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night, where he said he dealt with Ukraine at the State Department’s request.
Fox News
Giuliani also consulted on Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. He got spoofed by “Borat’s daughter”, played by Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova, in Sasha Baron Cohen’s movie sequel.
Rudy Giuliani’s appearance in the movie is one of the most talked about moments in the movie.
Amazon Studios
Some of Giuliani’s most controversial work for Trump came at the end of the 2020 election, where he pushed the factually dubious Hunter Biden laptop story and led the Trump campaign’s baseless legal efforts to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, personal attorney to U.S. President Donald Trump, wipes away sweat as he speaks about the 2020 U.S. presidential election results during a news conference in Washington, U.S., November 19, 2020.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Ex-staffer Noelle Dunphy sues Giuliani, accusing him of sexually abusing her. She also alleged he asked her for help “selling pardons.”
Rudy Giuliani and guests attended the Friars Club gala honoring Tracy Morgan in May 2022.
Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images
Dunphy accused Giuliani of forcing her to submit to sex acts as a condition of her employment, including making her perform oral sex on him which he took calls from then-President Donald Trump on speaker phone.
Dunphy, who was hired as director of business development for the Giuliani Companies in 2019, alleged that Giuliani told her he liked receiving oral sex while on the phone because it made him “feel like Bill Clinton.”
The lawsuit, which seeks $10 million in damages, also alleges that Giuliani asked Dunphy for help “selling pardons” for $2 million a pop. Giuliani told her that he and Trump “would split” the fee, the lawsuit alleges.
Giuliani, through his spokesman Ted Goodman, “unequivocally” denied the allegations to Insider: “Mayor Giuliani’s lifetime of public service speaks for itself and he will pursue all available remedies and counterclaims.”
Source: Insider
