Missing: Rudolph “Rudy” William Louis Giuliani
Age: 79. Height: 5 feet, 9 inches (5 feet, 11 inches when being booked by police in Georgia). Hair: Runny. Eyes: Nutty. Identifying characteristics: A tendency to hang around lawn care centers across from porn shops, and plotting the overthrow of the U.S. government.
In April, a grand jury indicted Giuliani and 17 others in a scheme to substitute fake Donald Trump electors for the real Joe Biden electors in Arizona. Since then, all 17 others have been served notice of their dates to appear before a judge. But not Giuliani, because the former mayor of New York—who is also a former federal prosecutor—has gone on the lam.
As The Washington Post reports, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has dispatched multiple teams of prosecutors and investigators to serve notice to Giuliani that he’s due in front of an Arizona state judge on May 21.
In December, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy after losing a civil case for repeatedly defaming two Georgia poll workers, for which he was ordered to pay $148 million in damages and compensation. But declaring bankruptcy doesn’t absolve Giuliani of paying what he owes.
Giuliani might have expected Trump, the billionaire for whom he put everything on the line, to help him out. Or at least Trump could have paid Giuliani what he owed him. But opening up his wallet when he doesn’t have to is simply not Trump’s way. However, after Giuliani went to Trump and personally begged for payment, Trump held a fundraiser for the former mayor, which might have erased less than 1% of his debt.
Despite this, Giuliani has managed to keep his Upper East Side apartment, which he once listed with Sotheby Realty at an asking price of $6.5 million. Investigators were able to identify a room in this apartment from a video recently streamed by Giuliani, so they had a good idea where to track him down when they came to New York with papers in hand. But they were apparently turned away by the most powerful official in New York: a doorman.
The Arizona case mirrors the case in Georgia where Giuliani surrendered to police along with Trump and fellow coup plotters. But Arizona and Georgia are not the only states where Giulani might still face a court date.
Giuliani’s sordid legacy could be a tragedy … except that it keeps turning into an utter farce. Almost everything Republicans have done over the last six years—from the election of Trump, to “Hunter Biden’s laptop,” to the false claims about Biden’s connections to Ukraine—have Giuliani’s hair dye-stained fingerprints all over them. What he owes in his defamation case might seem like a lot, but the damage he’s done to the nation is inestimable.
Whatever Giulani believes, staying away from the Arizona investigators in a criminal case is not like avoiding process servers in an alimony hearing. He still has to show up for this one.
“You can think of a summons to appear as a courtesy by the prosecutors—it is an invitation to appear,” former U.S. attorney Paul Charlton said. “You can be held in contempt if you are served and fail to appear. But the alternative for prosecutors is to issue an arrest warrant, and that is, of course, a much more compelling vehicle.”
If an arrest warrant is issued, even the power of a ritzy doorman won’t save Giuliani from being dragged to Arizona in handcuffs.
Ian Bassin is the former associate White House counsel and co-founder and executive director of Protect Democracy. Protect Democracy is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group focused on anti-authoritarianism, how to protect our democracy, and safeguarding our free and fair elections.
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