Rudy Giuliani

Harold Giuliani was a plumber and a bartender who could not hold a job. He was convicted of felony assault and robbery, served time in Sing Sing, and afterward worked as an enforcer for his brother in law Leo D'Avanzo, who ran an organized crime affiliated loan sharking and gambling operation out of a Brooklyn restaurant. His only child was born in East Flatbush on May 28, 1944. The family moved to Long Island when the boy was seven, and he commuted back to Brooklyn for high school. He took a political science degree at Manhattan College, considered the priesthood, and went to NYU law school instead, graduating cum laude in 1968. Then a federal clerkship, and the US attorney's office.

He ran the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989, with 4,152 convictions and 25 reversals. The Mafia Commission trial charged 11 mobsters under RICO, including the heads of the five families. Three bosses drew 100-year sentences. His office also prosecuted Ivan Boesky and built the Michael Milken case. As mayor from 1994 he backed broken windows policing and CompStat. Crime fell steeply. How much of that was his doing remains argued, since a national decline was already under way. Officers tortured Abner Louima in 1997 and killed the unarmed Amadou Diallo in 1999. He defended the department.

On September 11, 2001, he was a term-limited mayor in his last months, with an approval rating near 36 percent. Six weeks later it was 79. He walked north out of the dust, gave the briefings, went to the funerals, and was praised for it across the political spectrum. Time named him Person of the Year that December, and Queen Elizabeth II made him an honorary knight in February 2002. The record holds the criticism too. He had overruled the emergency management director who recommended Brooklyn and put the city's command center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center, which burned and collapsed that afternoon. The 9/11 Commission noted that the fire department's radios, faulted after the 1993 bombing, were not working when chiefs ordered the towers evacuated.

The 2008 presidential run began with him the front runner and ended in Florida on January 30, third and 3.6 million dollars in debt. A decade later he was Donald Trump's personal lawyer. A New York appeals court disbarred him on July 2, 2024, finding he had made demonstrably false statements about the 2020 election to courts, lawmakers and the public. Washington, DC, followed in September. Georgia indicted him in 2023 and dropped the case in 2025. A federal jury awarded Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss 148 million dollars for defaming them. He settled in January 2025. Trump pardoned him federally in November 2025. The verdict is not settled, and the two halves do not sit together easily.

Rudy Giuliani's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• Mafia Commission trial case
  Eleven organized crime figures charged under RICO, including the heads of the five families 1986
• Prosecution of Ivan Boesky case
  A 100 million dollar fine and a three and a half year sentence, by agreement 1986
• Domestic partnership benefits for city employees law
  Equal benefits for the domestic partners of all New York City workers 1998
• Leadership other
  Written with Ken Kurson and published October 1, 2002 2002
• Giuliani Partners other
  The security consulting firm he founded after leaving City Hall 2002

• May 28, 1944 aged 0 Born in East Flatbush, Brooklyn His father, Harold, had served time in Sing Sing for assault and robbery.
• 1968 aged ~24 Graduates cum laude from NYU law school He had considered the priesthood. He clerked instead for a federal judge in the Southern District of New York.
• June 3, 1983 aged 39 Becomes US attorney for the Southern District of New York Technically a demotion from associate attorney general, and the job he wanted.
• January 13, 1987 aged 42 Three heads of the five families are sentenced to 100 years each The Mafia Commission trial ran from February 1985 to November 1986.
• November 2, 1993 aged 49 Elected mayor at the second attempt, beating David Dinkins Dinkins had beaten him in 1989 by 47,080 votes, the closest mayoral race in the city's history.
• May 19, 2000 aged 55 Withdraws from the Senate race against Hillary Clinton He had announced a prostate cancer diagnosis weeks earlier.
• September 11, 2001 aged 57 The attacks on the World Trade Center His approval rating among city voters went from 36 percent to 79 percent in six weeks.
• December 15, 2023 aged 79 A federal jury awards 148 million dollars to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss The award included 75 million dollars in punitive damages. He settled with them in January 2025.
• July 2, 2024 aged 80 Disbarred in New York The District of Columbia disbarred him on September 26, 2024, under reciprocal discipline.

• Donald Trump b. 1946
  Businessman, media personality, and 45th and 47th president whose populist movement transformed American politics. personal attorney to
• Ivan Boesky 1937–2024
  The 1980s insider trading scandal and the cooperation that brought down Michael Milken prosecuted
• Michael Milken b. 1946
  Financier who built the modern high-yield bond market at Drexel Burnham Lambert, pleaded guilty to six securities and tax felonies in 1990, and later funded medical research and an economic think tank. prosecuted
• John Gotti 1940–2002
  Boss of the Gambino crime family, convicted of murder and racketeering adversary
• Fiorello La Guardia 1882–1947
  Broke Tammany, rebuilt New York on New Deal money, and read the funnies on the radio during a strike. earlier Republican mayor
• Michael Bloomberg b. 1942
  Founder of Bloomberg LP, three-term mayor of New York City, and major political donor. endorsed