Rudy Giuliani's Life Keeps Going Downhill


     Rudy Giuliani had a successful career. Associate Attorney General of the United States and later U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in the Reagan years, he served as the mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. The pinnacle of his career was his response to 9/11 near the end of his term, and he unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2000 and sought the Republican nomination for president in the 2008 election. He was Time "Man of the Year" for 2001.

     That is not to say his life wasn't always weird. He got divorced twice from his first wife, Regina Peruggi, in 1982 after it was discovered that they were second cousins. He cheated on her with Donna Hanover, to whom he was married from 1984 to 2002. While she supported him during his bout with prostate cancer and raised their two children, he cheated with who would ultimately become his third wife, Judith Nathan. This resulted in an ugly public dispute in which she was awarded more than $6 million as well as custody of both of their children. She was never informed that they were legally separated until a reporter asked her for her response.

     Giuliani really went from hero to zero beginning in April 2018, when he joined Donald Trump's legal team. That month, it was announced that he had begun a divorce (which would be finalized in December 2019) from Nathan, a nurse and philanthropist who managed his presidential run. His connections to Ukraine came under public scrutiny in 2019, and this resulted in an investigation that culminated on a raid on his apartment and offices in 2021. He was captured on audio asking the nation to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and son Hunter (in exchange for military support for Ukraine) in his capacity as Trump's lawyer, another consequence of which was Trump's first impeachment. If convicted on this clear violation of federal law, Giuliani is looking at prison time.

     Then there was the election. He refused to accept Trump's defeat in the 2020 presidential election from the beginning and was a chief architect of the "Big Lie." He said there was widespread fraud in public while saying no such thing in court, being laughed out of dozens of cases (many of which were presided over by Trump-appointed judges). They had good reason, from his farting during a hearing to his hair dye bleeding during a press conference and the whole affair being announced at Four Seasons Landscaping, when, obviously, the five-star hotel was intended, located conveniently between an adult toy store and a crematorium. He lied through his teeth on FOX News, and he, alongside Mike Lindell and Sydney Powell, is currently fighting billions in civil suits from voting machine companies like Dominion.

     He had his law license suspended pending a hearing, where he is likely to be the second Trump attorney disbarred. The panel of judges noted that he willfully and knowingly made false claims about the election, which caused imminent danger to election officials, Democrats, and democracy as a whole. The January 6th insurrection made that evident. The fact that this court confirmed he committed defamation and that that is what he is being sued for doesn't look good for his chances of avoiding bankruptcy.

     Rudy Giuliani is facing criminal, civil, and public opinion pressure from which he will never recover. It's the least we could do for America's (Former) Mayor.

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