Donald Trump indicted: How Rudy Giuliani is connected to former president’s indictment cases
Julia Johnson
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Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and onetime attorney for former President Donald Trump, was one of 19 people indicted by a Georgia grand jury on Monday for alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Trump was also named in the indictment and charged with 13 counts.
This isn’t the first time “America’s mayor” has been implicated in one of the high-profile cases brought against the former president. While he wasn’t indicted, Giuliani was identified by several outlets as co-conspirator No. 1, referenced in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump earlier this month on charges related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
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In the 98-page indictment revealed Monday evening, Giuliani, Trump, and others were accused of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as “RICO.” According to the document, the men and other indicted and unindicted co-conspirators “unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate in” violations of this law.
Per the indictment, Giuliani was involved in efforts to encourage Georgia officials to appoint presidential electors illegally, sometimes referred to as “fake electors,” which violated the terms of their oath of office. He also allegedly made false statements surrounding voting irregularities in the state. Giuliani is further alleged to have made false claims, with the indictment pointing specifically to his statement that at least 96,000 mail-in ballots were counted in the 2020 presidential election, even as there are no records of those ballots being returned to the county elections office.
Also mentioned is Giuliani’s claim accusing Dominion Voting Systems machines of recording 6,000 votes for then-candidate Joe Biden when they were meant for Trump. This was found to be inaccurate in the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office’s hand audit of presidential votes cast in the state’s Antrim County.
In the Aug. 1 indictment brought by Smith regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, co-conspirator No. 1, who is unnamed, is described as an “attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.”
Giuliani’s attorney Robert Costello acknowledged that the former mayor is almost certainly the co-conspirator. “It appears that this indictment alleges that Mayor Giuliani is co-conspirator #1,” he said in a statement following the indictment.
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“This indictment eviscerates the First Amendment and tries to criminalize the existing administration’s number one political opponent for daring to challenge the election results of 2020,” he added.
According to the document, co-conspirator No. 1 was deeply involved in the attempts to convince officials in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to act illegally, further assisting in organizing groups of fake electors to cast their vote for Trump despite his loss in the 2020 election. Similar to Trump, Giuliani is alleged to have falsely claimed that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to refuse to certify the results of the election, something Pence maintains he couldn’t have done. Further, the co-conspirator is accused of reaching out to lawmakers following the Capitol riot and asking them to delay certifying the election.