Giuliani recovering from pneumonia, still critical, says spokesman

WASHINGTON, May 5 — Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani remained in critical condition Monday as he recovers from pneumonia, a spokesman said.

Giuliani, an 81 year old who was once closely allied with President Donald Trump, has been taken off a mechanical ventilator and is breathing on his own, spokesman Ted Goodman said on X without specifying where the man once known as “America’s mayor” after the September 11 attacks is hospitalisxed or when he was admitted.

Goodman linked Giulani’s current illness to the 2001 attacks when hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, killing thousands.

The spokesman said Giuliani rushed to the Twin Towers that day to help people, breathing the toxic air that engulfed New York and eventually developing what the spokesman called restrictive airway disease.

“This condition adds complications to any respiratory illness, and the virus quickly overwhelmed his body,” Goodman said of Giuliani’s pneumonia diagnosis, which had not been disclosed until now.

Goodman gave no other details of Giuliani’s illness or planned treatment, saying only that his family is with him and urging people to pray.

The New York Times reported that Giuliani was hospitalised in Florida.

Giuliani shot to national prominence after 9/11. Earlier in his career, he gained fame as the fearless Mafia-busting prosecutor whose aggressive use of racketeering laws brought down New York’s organized crime families.

But Giuliani experienced a stunning fall from grace in recent years, including in 2023 when a federal jury ordered him to pay US$148 million to two election workers. He was found guilty of defaming them by falsely tying them to alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Giuliani, a Republican, became a fierce defender of Trump, joining his personal legal team during the president’s first White House term.

He came under scrutiny by the Manhattan US attorney’s office in 2019 over his activities connected to investigations about Ukraine and apparent efforts to dig up dirt on Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Giuliani was also part of the effort to reverse his client’s election loss to Biden in 2020. But one by one, the post-election court challenges were withdrawn or dismissed as groundless.

He has since been disbarred in New York and Washington.

Giuliani was facing criminal charges in Arizona related to the 2020 election and other legal issues when Trump issued him a sweeping pardon last November.

On Sunday Trump hailed Giuliani as a “true warrior” and New York’s best-ever mayor.

“What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL—AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!” Trump added.

“They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!” — AFP