'Only goal should be to die a free man': Giuliani's former colleagues describe shock at 'fall from grace'

After his poor showing in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, Rudy Giuliani went into a depression and started drinking heavily. One person who stepped to help him get back on track was Donald Trump, NBC News reported.

“It was Donald Trump who came to his rescue,” said journalist Andrew Kirtzman, who dished on the pair's relationship in his 2022 book, “Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America’s Mayor.”

Now, Giuliani has been charged under the RICO Act for allegedly helping Trump in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia. And, according to Giuliani's former press secretary Ken Frydman, the former New York City mayor's "fall from grace is almost complete."

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“His only goal should be to die a free man," Frydman said.

Giuliani's antics alongside Trump have "stunned and saddened" many of his former colleagues and aides, according to NBC News' Rich Schapiro – antics which have led to him being sued by voting machine manufacturers, a pair of Fulton County poll workers who allege that he defamed them, and by a woman who accused him of “wide-ranging sexual assault.”

"The indictment accuses Giuliani and 18 others, including Trump, of violating Georgia’s Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which is modeled on a federal law Giuliani famously championed when he was busting up the mob in New York," writes Schapiro, adding that Giuliani has claimed his innocence.

Schapiro points out that Giuliani still has his defenders, one of them being a former mobster who was a captain in the Colombo crime family who Giuliani once prosecuted.

“My opinion of him has changed,” Michael Franzese said. “I don’t want him to go to prison.”

Read the full article over at NBC News.