Giuliani’s plea to ex-president as costs of racketeering case mount

Former New York mayor travelled to Trump’s Mar-a- Lago estate, with lawyer in tow, to plead for help with mounting legal costs amid racketeering charge.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney, has made a direct appeal to the former president to bankroll his defence against 13 charges. Picture: AFP

Rudy Giuliani has made a desperate plea for Donald Trump to help pay his legal bills, as the former president’s co-defendants face the crippling cost of fighting their indictment in Georgia.

Trump and 18 associates were charged on Monday over their attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in the key battleground state, which President Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes. Prosecutors in Fulton county accused Trump of having led a sprawling “criminal enterprise” to subvert the vote and cling on to power.

All 19 defendants were charged with racketeering under a law conceived to prosecute the mafia. If convicted they face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in jail and a maximum 20-year term.

As they prepare to turn themselves in next week to face the charges at a notorious Fulton county jail known as Rice Street, some of Trump’s co- defendants are struggling to pay their soaring legal bills.

Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney, has made a direct appeal to the former president to bankroll his defence against 13 charges.

Giuliani and Robert Costello, his lawyer, travelled to Trump’s Mar-a- Lago estate in Florida in April to plead for help with their mounting legal costs, according to a report. At the meeting the pair told the former president that “paying Giuliani’s bills was ultimately in Trump’s best interest”, CNN reported.

Giuliani put his $6.5 million New York apartment up for sale this month to cover his legal costs. Picture: Sotheby’s

Trump, who has a decades-long reputation for refusing to pay lawyers and contractors, offered only vague assurances of help.

Giuliani, a central figure in Trump’s campaign to overturn his defeat to Biden, already faced a string of lawsuits and spiralling legal costs before the charges in Georgia.

The former New York mayor has $140,000 in unpaid lawyers’ fees stemming from a defamation lawsuit brought by two election workers in Georgia whom Giuliani falsely accused of stealing votes on election night to swing the state for Biden.

Giuliani has also been ordered to pay $31,000 a month for storage of his electronic records, $23,000 for a search of his records and a $89,000 judgment for unpaid phone bills. His luxury New York flat was put up for sale for $10 million this month to cover his costs.

Georgia prosecutors, led by Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, will hope that financial pressure and fear of jail persuades some of Trump’s alleged co-conspirators to turn against him. Those fears may be heightened if the defendants are forced to surrender to be booked at Fulton county jail, as expected.

Two inmates at the intimidating Rice Street jail have been found dead in their cells this month and prisoners have complained of filthy conditions. Another man was found dead in his cell last year, his corpse covered in bed bugs and lice. His lawyer denounced the prison as a “torture chamber”.

The Times