Giuliani Turns Himself In, Prepares To Teach Those Young Whippersnappers A Few Things About RICO

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DECREPIT EAGLE HAS LANDED! REPEAT: DECREPIT EAGLE HAS LANDED.

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Presumably that will be Rudy Giuliani’s jailhouse nickname. Maybe America’s Decrepit Eagle, if he’s lucky. And indeed, the old codger did manage to get himself to Atlanta today to surrender on charges that he participated in a RICO conspiracy to interfere with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

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On the courthouse steps, he pronounced himself thrilled to be “defending the rights of all Americans,” before pivoting to accusing District Attorney Fani Willis of denying Trump the right to counsel by arresting all his attorneys.

“I’m feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I am defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” Rudy Giuliani says as he heads to Georgia to surrender. pic.twitter.com/C122gGnXn0

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 23, 2023

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Note that Trump valued Rudy’s services so highly that he omitted to pay for them and has largely refused to help him with his voluminous legal bills. The former president does appear to be headlining a $100,000/plate fundraiser for Giuliani’s legal bills next month at the Trump golf club in New Jersey, though. Get your tickets today!

This financial crunch may account for Giuliani’s reported difficulty securing counsel to represent him in Georgia. The New York Times reports that the former mayor flew down on a private plane accompanied by attorney John Esposito of the New York firm Aidala Bertuna & Kamins, who will be his lead counsel on the case. As of last night, however, he had not secured local counsel, and so, according to CNN, was taking along his pal Bernie Kerik to advise him.

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Kerik, who is not a lawyer, has agreed to assist Giuliani at no cost through the first phase of the Georgia prosecution — including bond negotiations with the Fulton County district attorney’s office and then surrendering to local authorities, the sources said.

At first blush, this would appear to be a rather odd choice. Kerik, the former New York police commissioner who was pardoned for various financial crimes by Donald Trump, is described in the Fulton County indictment as “unindicted co-conspirator Individual 5.”

..given that Kerik is very clearly unindicted co-conspirator 5 in Fulton County, which we can figure out from the description of public events and emails produced to the Jan. 6 Committee. /2 pic.twitter.com/A4CQckhIU0

— Opening Arguments (@openargs) August 23, 2023

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This would strongly suggest that Kerik is a fact witness in this case. And indeed the consent order setting the terms of his bail requires that Giuiliani “shall not communicate in any way, directly or indirectly, about the facts of this case with any person known to him to be a witness in this case except through his or her counsel.” Giuliani can hardly claim that he invited his pal along to talk about the Yankees when Kerik is explicitly there to act as a liaison with the courts.

In any event, Giuliani has now secured Georgia counsel for his initial appearance. The New York Times reports that Atlanta attorney Brian Tevis has agreed to appear for Giuliani in this initial phase, but has not committed to represent him going forward.

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Giuliani’s bail on the 13 charges against him was set at $150,000.

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.

Topics

Courts, Crime, Donald Trump, Georgia, Government, Rudy Giuliani