Rudy Giuliani indicted under racketeering laws he famously used to take down mob bosses
Rudy Giuliani — once the most feared federal prosecutor in America for using RICO laws to take down Mafia bigs — just got indicted under the same statutes in Georgia for alleged election tampering.
“You couldn’t invent such irony,” Ken Frydman, who was campaign press secretary for Giuliani’s successful 1993 comeback campaign for New York City mayor, told The Post on Tuesday.
Giuliani, 79, famously pioneered the use of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations laws in landing convictions against Mafiosi and other crooks in the 1980s as a federal prosecutor.
But the statutes came back to bite him Monday, when he was indicted along with buddy and former President Donald Trump under Georgia’s state RICO laws for allegedly trying to overturn the Peach State’s 2020 presidential election results.
Both Giuliani and Trump have denied any wrongdoing.
Frydman said, “Rudy was hoist by his own petard.
“He brought this on himself.”
Giuliani, the former US attorney for the Southern District, touted his law-and-order credentials as a federal prosecutor to first sweep into City Hall in 1994 during an era when voters were fed up with high crime, including 2,000 murders a year.
Giuliani later became known as “America’s Mayor” for helping New York City recover from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008.
Frydman, a fan-turned-critic of his former boss, previously produced a four-episode docu-series called “Giuliani: What Happened to America’s Mayor.”
“Rudy as a prosecutor was considered the cream of the crop — the best of the best,” Frydman said. “He was considered the best litigator, legal strategist and tactician.”
Giuliani was the first prosecutor to aggressively use RICO laws to prosecute and convict numerous mob bosses in the famous Mafia Commission case.
His office won convictions against eight top members of La Cosa Nostra in New York in 1986, including three bosses of crime families: Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno of the Genovese crime family, Anthony “Tony Ducks” Corallo of the Lucchese group and Carmine “Junior” Persico of the Colombos. The RICO charges included murders, loan-sharking, labor union payoffs and massive extortion in the construction industry.
One of the defendants, Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano, was assassinated before trial.
“It was the most sweeping use of the RICO statute,” said a federal prosecutor who worked under Giuliani.
Giuliani also used the civil RICO laws to put the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, accused of being controlled by organized crime, under federal oversight for decades.
What we know about Trump and the 18 others charged in the Georgia 2020 election probe
Donald Trump
- Former president of the United States
- Faces 13 charges related to allegedly lying about election tampering involving the 2020 presidential race in Georgia and repeatedly trying to get state officials to violate their oaths and claim there was voter fraud.
Rudy Giuliani
- Ex-New York City mayor and former federal prosecutor-turned-Trump lawyer
- Faces 13 charges for leading Trump’s election challenges while allegedly conspiring to commit crimes while impersonating a public officer and filing false documents.
Mark Meadows
- Ex-White House chief of staff
- Faces two charges over arranging a Jan. 2 call by Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to try to reverse the state’s election results, after a Dec. 23 call by Trump to Frances Watson, chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state, to do the same thing.
John Eastman
- Trump lawyer
- Faces nine charges for urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Biden electors, claiming in a court filing that about 72,000 people illegally voted in Georgia and speaking at a rally before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to disrupt certification of the election.
Jeffrey Clark
- Ex-acting assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division
- Faces two charges over writing a late December document allegedly falsely claiming the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the State of Georgia.”
Kenneth Chesebro
- Trump lawyer
- Faces seven charges including for planning for alternate electors to allegedly try to thwart the election results.
Sidney Powell
- Trump lawyer
- Faces seven charges including computer theft, invasion of privacy and efforts to defraud the state after making voter-machine fraud claims and trying to access voter files.
Jenna Ellis
- Trump lawyer
- Faces two charges including for allegedly soliciting a public officer to violate their oath by pressuring state senators to support alternate electors for Trump while falsely claiming election fraud.
Ray Smith
- Trump lawyer
- Faces 12 charges including for allegedly conspiring to supporter the alternate slate of electors and pressuring officials while helping to lead Trump’s Georgia election challenges.
Mike Roman
- Trump campaign aide
- Faces seven charges including for allegedly conspiring to support the alternate electors and committing fraud while working on the plan.
Trevian Kutti
- Ex-Kanye West publicist
- Faces three charges including for allegedly soliciting false statements by meeting with election worker Ruby Freeman for one hour to pressure her to admit to ballot-stuffing at a vote-counting center.
Harrison Floyd
- Ex-executive director of Black Voices for Trump
- Faces three charges including for alleged conspiracy to solicit false statements by helping Kutti to pressure Freeman, including by allegedly saying her safety was at risk and offering protection.
Stephen Lee
- Illinois pastor
- Faces five charges including for allegedly attempting to influence witnesses and solicit false statements by pressuring Freeman, including traveling to her home and speaking with a neighbor.
Robert Cheeley
- Georgia lawyer
- Faces 10 charges including perjury and conspiring to impersonate a public officer when presenting alleged fraud evidence to legislators.
Misty Hampton
- Ex-official in Coffee County, Georgia
- Faces seven charges including conspiring to commit election fraud, computer theft and invasion of privacy after falsely alleging voter-machine fraud.
Scott Hall
- Bail bondsman
- Faces seven charges for being involved in the Coffee County voter-machine fraud claims.
Cathy Latham
- One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
- Faces 11 charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying in a deposition about her role in pressing voter-fraud claims in Coffee County.
David Shafer
- One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
- Faces eight charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying about his role in convening the alternate electors for a meeting Dec. 14.
Shawn Still
- One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
- Faces seven charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying to state senators to falsely claim that two state officials confided there was widespread fraud.
In a statement early Tuesday on X, formerly known as Twitter, Giuliani ranted that the grand jury indictment obtained by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is an abuse of Georgia’s state RICO law.
“This indictment is an affront to American Democracy and does permanent, irrevocable harm to our justice system,” Giuliani said.
“It’s just the next chapter in a book of lies with the purpose of framing President Donald Trump and anyone willing to take on the ruling regime. [Foes] lied about Russian collusion, they lied about Joe Biden’s foreign bribery scheme, and they lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive proving 30 years of criminal activity.
“The real criminals here are the people who have brought this case forward both directly and indirectly,” Giuliani said.
Former Republican US Attorney Al D’Amato, who recommended that Giuliani be appointed US attorney by then-President Ronald Reagan but later had a falling out with him in a political dispute, sided with the former mayor and Trump on the Georgia indictment.
“It is ironic that Rudy is being indicted under RICO. But Rudy used the RICO statute correctly. He used it appropriately,” D’Amato said.
“This case brought in Georgia is a witch hunt that is making the nation a laughingstock. These are political charges that shouldn’t be brought in state court.”
