Giuliani, Rudolph William [key], 1944–, American government official, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. He attended Manhattan College and studied law at New York Univ. In the Justice Dept. as associate deputy attorney general (1975–77), associate attorney general (1981–83), and U.S. attorney for New York's Southern District (1983–89), Giuliani was known for his successful high-profile prosecutions of Mafia bigwigs and Wall Street miscreants. A Republican, he narrowly won the New York City mayoralty in 1993, defeating the incumbent, David Dinkins, who had bested him by a slim margin in 1989. Running largely on a successful reduction in city crime, he won reelection in 1997. In 2000 he was the all-but-announced Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against Hillary Rodham Clinton, but ill health and the breakup of his marriage led him to withdraw. Following the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Giuliani won international regard for his vigor and sensitivity in leading the city as it coped with the disaster. He retired in 2001, having failed in his efforts to suspend term limits and run for a third term; Michael R. Bloomberg succeeded him as mayor. In 2007–8, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. A strident supporter of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, he was touted for a number of cabinet posts after Trump's win, but ultimately (2018) became a member of President Trump's legal team responsible for dealing with the Mueller investigation. In 2019 it was revealed that he had also acted as a diplomat for Trump, seeking to force Ukraine to investigate questionable charges that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election and that the Bidens were involved in corrupt Ukraine dealings; he also pressed the U.S. government to remove its ambassador to Ukraine because of her opposition to his efforts. In 2020, claiming election fraud without evidence, he led Trump's postelection efforts to overturn Biden victories in several swing states.
See his Leadership (2002); biographies by W. Barrett (2000) and A. Kirtzman (2000); F. Siegel, The Prince of the City (2005); W. Barrett and D. Collins, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 (2006).
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