Judge threatens to cut Giuliani's mic as he rants about attempt to 'destroy Donald Trump'
An Arizona judge has ordered Rudy Giuliani to surrender within 30 days. The former New York City mayor is facing charges related to a fake elector scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In a Tuesday Maricopa County Superior Court hearing, prosecutors argued that Giuliani had evaded being served with indictment papers.
"He did not tell us where he was going to be," the prosecutor said, noting Giuliani had been served Friday night during his 80th birthday party.
"He has never, although we served him, it's, I guess, semantics on whether he accepted service like a gentleman or not, but he has shown no intent to comply with legal process in Arizona for this case," the prosecutor added.
The state asked Giuliani to turn himself in within 30 days and pay a $10,000 cash bond.
"First of all, it was publicly known where I was going to be when they came to serve me," the former New York City mayor told the judge. "I've been on the radio, on television, and the radio every day since this indictment started announcing where I am, so I haven't been hiding from anyone."
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Giuliani blamed the tight security at his apartment building for difficulties serving him.
"I have a fair number of threats, including death threats, and I don't have security any longer since I've been in bankruptcy," he said. "So I have very, very strict rules about who gets up and who doesn't, and as you might imagine, some people do pretend to be all kinds of things in order to get up and harass you, some of which have happened to me over the years."
"I still have death threats that go back to the time I was in not just public service, but four years ago there was an attempt to kill me by the Iranian government, very well documented and tried in France, then another one tried in the Netherlands," he ranted to the court.
Giuliani argued that a cash bond "would be totally punitive."
"I've been indicted in Georgia, I've appeared on every occasion, I've been sued about 20 to 25 times by a very similar movement to this one, which is the, let's see what we can do to destroy Donald Trump," the former New York City mayor insisted. "I do consider this indictment a complete embarrassment to the American legal system, but I've shown no tendency not to comply."
"I show up for every court appearance, and there must have been about 20 to 30 of them," he added. "There is no history of my being a false witness, which is the basis for a cash bail. I think it would be outrageous if you set a bond in this completely political case that comes very, very late."
The judge tried to interrupt Giuliani several times before eventually threatening to cut his microphone.
"Mr. Giuliani, I don't want to mute you, but I need to move on," she said. "I'll adopt the release conditions as requested by the state, however, with respect to the bond, I'll set a secured appearance bond rather than a cash bond with respect to the release conditions."
Under Arizona rules, Giuliani must provide some type of collateral—property or cash—to be released from jail before trial.