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...