When he was a federal prosecutors in New York City back in the 1980s, Rudy Giuliani was praised for using the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act to break the back of the East Coast mafia.
Now, Giuliani is himself facing a RICO charge related to his alleged role in Donald Trump's efforts to delegitimize the 2020 election results in Georgia. He is facing between 5 and 20 years in prison if convicted.
Newsweek pointed to a 1985 interview Giuliani gave to The New York Times in which he characterized the mobsters he prosecuted under RICO as "illegitimate" members of society.
"Organized crime figures are illegitimate people who would go on being illegitimate people if I got them off," Giuliani said at the time. "I would not want to spend a lot of time with them, shake hands with them, have sidebar conferences with them and become involved with people who are close to totally evil."
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On Monday, Giuliani was indicted alongside Trump and 17 other alleged co-conspirators in connection to an alleged scheme to overturn the election. All the defendants were charged with violating the state's RICO statute.
Giuliani was hit with 13 criminal counts, including violation of oath by public officer, making false statements, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, and conspiracy to commit forgery.
