What you need to know about Rudy Giuliani’s 2020 election charges

Former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was one of 18 people indicted alongside the former president in Georgia for allegedly participating in a wide-ranging effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.

Giuliani is accused of violating multiple state laws as part of a “criminal enterprise” that pressured state officials to reverse former President Donald Trump’s loss.

“Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump,” reads the indictment from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

READ MORE: Where the criminal cases against Trump stand

The former federal prosecutor led efforts to challenge President Joe Biden’s victory in several states. In Georgia, according to the indictment, he misled state legislative committees with false claims of election fraud and participated in a scheme to send fake electors to the official Jan. 6 count of votes in Congress, despite a statewide recount requested by Trump that confirmed Biden’s win.

“They indicted me for being a lawyer,” Giuliani said on his YouTube show after the indictment. In a statement, he described it as “the next chapter in a book of lies with the purpose of framing President Donald Trump and anyone willing to take on the ruling regime,” adding, “the real criminals here are the people who have brought this case forward both directly and indirectly.”

Giuliani is also believed to be the first co-conspirator listed in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment charging Trump for his efforts to hold onto power after losing the election.

What charges does Giuliani face?

Giuliani is one of 18 co-conspirators charged alongside Trump under the state’s RICO law, which is often used to prosecute criminal organizations.

Giuliani was charged on 13 counts:

• Violation of the Georgia RICO act
• 3 counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer
• 3 counts of false statements and writings
• Conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer
• 2 counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree
• 2 counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings
• Conspiracy to commit filing false documents

What does the Georgia indictment allege?

While the state racketeering charges comprise the bulk of the sprawling, 98-page indictment, Willis also accuses Giuliani of soliciting the violation of an oath by a public officer by persuading Georgia state senators and representatives to appoint a set of alternate electors who would cast their vote for Trump in the Electoral College instead of Biden, who had lawfully won.

READ MORE: Why Georgia’s RICO law could be key in the state’s case against Trump

In connection with that scheme, Giuliani faces various other counts including conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer and filing false documents. The indictment alleges that Giuliani, Trump and others masterminded the plan, while other lesser-known conspirators are charged with carrying out many of these actions.

In addition, Giuliani is charged with making false statements in Georgia legislative meetings, during which he falsely claimed there were voting errors and fraud.

What is Giuliani’s connection to Trump?

A former New York City mayor and one-time presidential candidate, Giuliani left his law firm to become Trump’s personal attorney in 2018, when the former president was under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

In that role, Giuliani immediately caused controversy by saying Trump paid hush money to Stephanie Clifford, also known as the adult film actress Stormy Daniels. That payment and others allegedly made on Trump’s behalf to silence affairs would become the subject of a criminal case in New York, where the former president faces trial after being indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

WATCH: What’s next for Trump after his 4th criminal indictment

Giuliani remained Trump’s personal lawyer through the rest of his term, though his tenure was marred by controversies. He continued to represent Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

A New York court suspended his legal license in 2021 for making false statements in pursuit of Trump’s reelection. He could face disbarment by a Washington court of appeals if it follows the July recommendation of a legal ethics committee.

What did Giuliani do before working for Trump?

Born and raised in New York City, Giuliani served as a federal prosecutor. In the 1980s, Giulani had high-profile success using the kind of racketeering charges he now faces against well-known crime families in New York.

In 1994, he became the first Republican in decades to be elected mayor of New York City. His legacy is in part remembered for his heavy emphasis on “stop and frisk” and “broken-window” policing, which disproportionately targeted Black and Hispanic New Yorkers, as well as for the redevelopment of Times Square.

In the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, when terrorists hijacked planes and crashed them into Manhattan’s two tallest towers, Giuliani emerged as a uniting force, earning him the moniker “America’s Mayor.” Time magazine named him its person of the year in 2001, calling him “indomitable” and “the voice of America;” comparing him to Winston Churchill; and insisting “he will be remembered as the greatest mayor in the city’s history.” That October, he became the first New York City mayor in nearly 50 years to address the U.N. General Assembly.

After his stint as mayor, Giuliani ran for president in 2008, but left the race that January after spending millions of dollars without any wins in early primary states. He drew heat in 2015 with remarks about then-President Barack Obama, saying, “I do not believe that the president loves America,” and “He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.” Giuliani tried to defend himself from criticism by insisting his comments were not racist because Obama’s mother was white.

What does the federal indictment allege about Giuliani?

There are six co-conspirators discussed in the indictment in the special counsel investigation. Giuliani is believed to be “co-conspirator 1,” based on the descriptions provided by prosecutors; one of his lawyers also told The New York Times that it “appears that Mayor Giuliani is alleged to be co-conspirator No. 1.”

In Smith’s probe, he is accused of “spearhead[ing]” Trump’s effort to “challenge the election results,” despite knowing that Biden had won.

According to the indictment, that meant pressuring Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bower to reconvene the body to examine false claims of election fraud, and to replace electors who would cast the state’s votes for Biden in Congress’ count with those who would illegally vote for Trump. The indictment alleges Giuliani said, “We don’t have the evidence, but we have lots of theories.”

READ MORE: Rudy Giuliani acknowledges that he made false statements about Georgia election workers

In Georgia, the federal indictment focuses on Giuliani presenting false claims of voter fraud to state legislative bodies. He also accused two election workers — mother and daughter Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss — of mishandling ballots during vote counting; he later admitted in court that he made false statements about them.

Giuliani allegedly pressured the Michigan senate majority leader and house speaker to overturn Biden’s win in their state. And in Pennsylvania, he falsely claimed that the state had received 700,000 more absentee ballots than it had distributed, according to the indictment.

After it became clear that the states were not going to overturn the results, Trump and his co-conspirators took a new tack, the indictment alleges. They rallied around a memo crafted by lawyer John Eastman that proposed an alternate slate of electors vote for Trump instead of Biden. Giuliani worked to implement that plan, prosecutors said, by recruiting lawyers in the targeted states and trying to convince the potential alternate electors to vote for Trump.

Finally, prosecutors say Trump and Giuliani continued to call lawmakers in the hours after the Jan. 6 attack to ask them to stall the certification of the electors’ votes when they returned to complete the count at the Capitol.