Rudy Giuliani's RICO Praise Comes Back to Haunt Him

Rudy Giuliani, a RICO pioneer who is now facing charges in Georgia under the same laws he was celebrated for prosecuting, once called racketeering defendants illegitimate.

"Organized crime figures are illegitimate people who would go on being illegitimate people if I got them off," Giuliani said in a 1985 interview with The New York Times. "I would not want to spend a lot of time with them, shake hands with them, have sidebar conferences with them and become involved with people who are close to totally evil."

Giuliani, who served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York between 1983 and 1989, was hailed during his time as a prosecutor for his innovative use of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act against the mob in New York. Late Monday, a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, indicted Giuliani on criminal charges for violating similar racketeering laws.