Rudy Giuliani’s Mounting Legal Trouble: Here Are All The Issues Trump Attorney Faces Amid Arizona Indictment

Topline

Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was reportedly indicted on criminal charges in Arizona for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election—the latest in a slew of legal troubles the former New York City mayor is facing, including criminal charges in Georgia.

Rudy Giuliani, leaves the U.S. District Court on May 19 in Washington, DC.

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Key Facts

Arizona Indictment: Giuliani is one of 18 Trump allies who were indicted on criminal charges in Arizona on Wednesday—media reports indicate he was charged, though his name remains redacted in the indictment—on allegations they fraudulently helped Trump try to overturn the 2020 election or signed on to a false slate of electors.

Georgia Indictment: Giuliani was indicted on 13 felony counts in Fulton County, Georgia, for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election as former President Donald Trump’s attorney, as part of a broader racketeering case against 19 defendants in total, including the former president (he has pleaded not guilty to the charges).

Georgia Defamation Case: Giuliani was sued for defamation by two Georgia election workers who he falsely tied to an unfounded conspiracy theory about voter fraud in 2020, which resulted in a protracted legal battle that ended with a jury ordering Giuliani to pay $148 million in damages—a ruling that prompted Giuliani to file for bankruptcy and was upheld by a federal judge in April.

Hunter Biden: Biden sued Giuliani, his limited liability companies and former lawyer Robert Costello in September 2023, accusing the former mayor and his attorney of tampering with Biden’s digital data recovered from his laptop, after conservatives—including Giuliani—used the laptop to push often-unproven allegations of wrongdoing by President Joe Biden.

DOJ Indictment: Giuliani is believed to be “co-conspirator 1” in a separate federal indictment charging Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his attorney has acknowledged, after the document described an “attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant's 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.”

Though the indictment alleges Giuliani was involved with Trump’s allegedly unlawful conspiracy to overturn the election results, he has not been charged in the investigation—though special counsel Jack Smith noted the DOJ’s investigation is still ongoing, so it’s not ruled out that he could be charged in the future.

Noelle Dunphy: Giuliani is facing a $10 million lawsuit brought by former associate Noelle Dunphy, who accused the attorney of a range of misconduct including sexual assault and harassment, with audio transcripts released last week as part of the case capturing Giuliani allegedly making sexually explicit comments, along with disparaging comments about Jewish men and actor Matt Damon, which included making a homophobic slur.

Dominion and Smartmatic: Giuliani has also been sued by voting machine companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic for spreading false election fraud claims involving their machines, and though a court initially dismissed some of the allegations against Giuliani in the Smartmatic case, an appeals court reinstated them in February 2023.

Staten Island Lawsuit: Giuliani was sued in May for false arrest by Daniel Gill, who slapped the attorney on the back and said, “What’s up, scumbag?” at a grocery store, and was charged with third-degree assault after Giuliani claimed Gill hit him.

Gill argues video footage of the incident shows he only “tapped” Giuliani “to get his attention,” and he was “put through the system” at Giuliani’s urging and the attorney conspired with police to “deprive [Gill] of his liberty.”

Disbarment: Giuliani has had his law license suspended in New York and Washington, D.C., due to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and proceedings are ongoing over whether he’ll be fully disbarred—the D.C. disciplinary panel has recommended his disbarment, but Giuliani intends to appeal the decision.

What To Watch For

Giuliani has not yet been formally arraigned yet in Arizona, and his name is expected to remain redacted on the public indictment until all parties in the case have been served. It’s still not clear when his criminal case in Georgia will go to trial, and the civil cases against him remain ongoing.

Chief Critic

Giuliani has strongly denied all the legal allegations against him and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in Georgia, calling them an “affront to American democracy.” He has not yet responded to the Arizona indictment. Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman has described him as having a “consensual relationship” with Dunphy and denied reports about the allegations in the case as “smears and attacks against a man who has dedicated his life to serving others,” and said the ruling against him in the Georgia election workers’ lawsuit should be “reversed” and was “a prime example of the weaponization of the justice system, where the process is the punishment.” About the Hunter Biden lawsuit, Goodman said Tuesday he was “not surprised [Biden is]

now falsely claiming his laptop hard drive was manipulated by Mayor Giuliani, considering the sordid material and potential evidence of crimes on that thing.”

Contra

Giuliani has had some legal wins in litigation and investigations against him, with federal prosecutors dropping an investigation in 2022 into whether Giuliani followed foreign lobbying laws without bringing any charges. A federal judge also dismissed two lawsuits against Giuliani that sought to hold him liable for the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building, ruling Giuliani’s speech before the riot, in which he called for “trial by combat,” was protected speech.

Tangent

Giuliani’s legal woes led to him reporting dire financial issues that have hampered his ability to pay his legal bills and fees—and ultimately resulted in him filing for bankruptcy in December after the $148 million fine was levied against him. The attorney pointed to his money troubles as his reason for not paying sanctions in the Georgia election workers’ defamation case before the lawsuit went to trial, and attorney Robert Costello sued Giuliani in September 2023 for $1.4 million in unpaid attorneys fees. Giuliani reportedly went to Mar-A-Lago to personally ask Trump to help him with his legal bills—leading to the ex-president helping Giuliani out at a fundraiser—and the attorney put his Manhattan apartment on the market for $6.5 million as his legal troubles grew.

Key Background

Giuliani, formerly the mayor of New York City, led the Trump campaign’s broadly unsuccessful legal effort to overturn the 2020 election, which included dozens of lawsuits that nearly all failed. The attorney only directly represented the campaign in one case in Pennsylvania, which failed, and also was involved with alleged efforts to pressure state lawmakers and officials to overturn the results. Giuliani is one of a number of lawyers involved with the post-election effort who are now facing consequences for doing so, along with Sidney Powell, John Eastman and Lin Wood. Those lawyers have also faced potential disbarment for their roles in trying to challenge the vote count, and Powell is similarly being sued by Dominion and Smartmatic. Giuliani is one of six co-conspirators listed in the indictment as helping Trump’s scheme, and while no one is identified by name in the court filing, the other conspirators are believed to include Eastman, Powell, DOJ attorney Jeffrey Clark and Kenneth Chesebro. All five of the attorneys were later charged as part of the Fulton County probe (the sixth co-conspirator’s identity remains unconfirmed).

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