Rudy Giuliani, former New York mayor and Trump lawyer, hospitalized in critical condition

Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks to the press on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was in "critical but stable condition" in a Florida hospital on Sunday night, his spokesman said.

Ted Goodman, his spokesman, did not offer any details about what led to the hospitalization of the 81-year-old Giuliani, who previously served as President Donald Trump's personal lawyer.

"Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he's fighting with that same level of strength as we speak," Goodman said in a statement.

"We do ask that you join us in prayer for America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani," he said.

The Republican served as an attorney for Trump's 2020 campaign, where he promoted false claims that Trump had actually won that election over former President Joe Biden.

Giuliani hosted his online show, "America's Mayor Live," on Friday night from Palm Beach, Florida, The Associated Press reported.

During the show, he coughed and sounded more raspy than usual, the AP noted.

"My voice is a little under the weather, so I won't be able to speak as loudly as I usually do, but I'll get closer to the microphone," Giuliani said during the show.

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Trump on Sunday night praised Giuliani while noting his condition, and repeated his election denial claims in a post on Truth Social.

Trump called Giuliani a "True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR," in his post.

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

"They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!" Trump wrote.

Giuliani's son, Andrew Giuliani, is executive director of the presidential task force for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which the United States is hosting with Canada and Mexico.

A Brooklyn native who served as a top federal prosecutor in the 1980s, Giuliani was New York's mayor from 1994 to 2001. His tenure was marked by a decline in the city's crime rate and by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack on the World Trade Center. 

Giuliani was widely lauded for leading the city's response to the attack, setting the stage for an unsuccessful run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

He was later indicted in Georgia and Arizona over efforts to reverse Trump's loss in the 2020 election. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The case in Fulton County, Georgia, whose defendants included Trump and other allies, was dropped in November by a prosecutor appointed to replace Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who had been disqualified from handling the case.

In Arizona, the state's attorney general is appealing a ruling requiring the criminal case to be returned to a grand jury because prosecutors did not present key legal text.

Giuliani was found liable in federal court in Washington, D.C., for defaming two Georgia election workers with his claims that they committed ballot fraud at a vote-counting site during the 2020. He was ordered to pay the women, who are mother and daughter, nearly $150 million in the case.

Giuliani was disbarred as a lawyer in New York in July 2024 after a state appeals court found that he had "flagrantly misused his prominent position as the personal attorney for ...Trump and his campaign" to spread false — and at times "perjurious" — claims about the 2020 election in multiple courts.

He was disbarred in Washington, D.C., two months later.