'Tragic flaw': Writer absolves Trump from any part in Giuliani's catastrophic downfall

Rudy Giuliani has fallen far from the days when he was heralded as "America's Mayor," especially since he's been bankrupted by an order to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers he defamed during his effort to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election results.

While many say Giuliani's downfall was directly a result of him aligning himself with Trump, The Telegraph's David Lewis Schaefer contends that it was his own doing.

Schaefer points to Giuliani's penchant for publicity-seeking that led to questionable prosecutions, such as that of the “junk-bond king” of the 1980s, Michael Milken, a financier who Giuliani convinced to take a plea bargain that led to a two-year prison sentence.

He was later pardoned by Trump.

A new book cited by Schaefer and written by a friend of Milken’s, Richard Sandler, titled "Witness to a Prosecution"provides “a convincing and concerning story of how the government” in this case “targeted a largely innocent man and, when presented with proof of that innocence, refused to turn away from a bad case," according to a review.

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Given that Giuliani had deep flaws even before his association with Trump, it's not surprising that he was drawn to Trump, "By the apparent lure of continuing access to power," Schaefer writes.

"So enamored did he become of that access that he ended up excusing or defending, starting in Trump’s 2016 campaign, just the sorts of presidential behavior one would have expected him to denounce as a prosecutor," Schaefer continues.

"As a sometime New Yorker, I was once disturbed by Giuliani’s offensive tactics in his treatment of alleged white-collar criminals (often accused of “victimless” crimes like insider trading), then celebrated his mayoral achievements. And there were two other aspects of his personal life that I liked: he was a fellow New York Yankee fan, and a learned opera buff."

"As in a Greek tragedy, I can only lament the tragic flaw that besmirched the late stage of his public career."