Rudy Giuliani says he’s ‘very, very proud’ of actions after taking Arizona mug shot

After emerging on Monday from having his mug shot taken in connection with the fake 2020 electors case pending against him in Arizona, Rudy Giuliani boasted about having no regrets over his actions that led to the criminal charges against him.

“I’m very, very proud of it,” the former Donald Trump attorney and ex-mayor of New York City said as he left the state courthouse.

When a reporter with KPNX asked him if he had any regrets about his role in trying to overturn the former president’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, Giuliani added: “Oh, my goodness, no.”

The comments from Giuliani came after an Arizona grand jury in May indicted him alongside 16 other Trump allies with attempting to change the outcome of Biden’s electoral victory in the state in 2020.

The grand jury charged Giuliani with pressuring Arizona legislators and the Maricopa county board of supervisors to change the result of the state’s presidential election – and with encouraging Republican electors in Arizona and six other contested states to vote for Trump.

It is one of Giuliani’s two unresolved criminal cases stemming from Trump’s loss to Biden. A grand jury in Georgia had previously charged him with spearheading efforts to compel state lawmakers to ignore the will of voters who rejected the former president in favor of Biden and illegally appoint pro-Trump electors to the electoral college.

Giuliani has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

On Monday, Giuliani was required to appear in person to be formally booked on the conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges outlined in the Arizona indictment after a virtual arraignment on 21 May. He also posted a $10,000 bond and had his mug shot as well as his fingerprints taken.

The criminal charges against Giuliani in Arizona and Georgia account for only some of the 80-year-old’s legal problems. He filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2023 after being ordered to pay $148m in a defamation case brought against him by Atlanta election workers Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss.

Giuliani had falsely accused Freeman and Moss of having a hand in robbing Trump of the 2020 election to Biden’s benefit.

His spreading of the lie that Trump only lost in 2020 because of electoral fraudsters also prompted the New York City radio station WABC to suspend Giuliani’s show from its lineup. But such a consequence did not seem to deter Giuliani from alluding to the 2020 election in his remarks to KPNX on Monday.

“There was a substantial amount of vote fraud that went on here that was covered up,” Giuliani said to the station, even though election integrity experts consider the 2020 race that Trump lost to be one of the most secure ever. “Probably one of the biggest conspiracies in American history.”

Giuliani, who was previously the US attorney for the federal court district encompassing New York City, later went on his online streaming show and expressed disbelief over Monday’s events.

“It’s hard for me to believe – after all my years in law enforcement and serving the government and all the cases I prosecuted successfully – that I actually had to report as a defendant in a criminal case,” he said on America’s Mayor Live.