To Understand Rudy Giuliani’s Actions on Jan. 6, Look at a 1992 Police Riot in New York
7 MINUTE READ

Rudy Giuliani stood before the angry crowd, his voice strained but carrying clearly over the assembled throng. The audience was angry and aggrieved—and many were also armed. Giving little heed to civility or comity, Giuliani knew what his crowd wanted, which was to overrun a building where officials were taking actions that the mob believed to be wrongheaded. Such a move would leave officials no choice but to cede their power and give the rioters what they wanted. It might be messy, but the crowd believed it could prevail.

Sounds familiar, right? Well, Giuliani has twice played a similar role in front of a violent mob: the most proximate was on Jan. 6, 2021, when he urged a crowd gathered between the White House and the Washington Monument to march to the Capitol to pressure Congress to keep Donald Trump in power despite and electoral loss; the other was back in 1992, when Giuliani stood on City Hall’s iconic steps with off-duty New York City police officers who thought the mayor’s plan to increase civilian oversight of the force would put those in uniform under too much scrutiny.

“If you wanted to see an early version of Jan. 6, 2021, go look at the footage of the police riot of 1992, City Hall, New York City,” former Mayor Bill de Blasio says in a new TIME Studios documentary about Giuliani.

Watching the four-part project, it’s clear that Giuliani’s worst instincts have long been evident. As TIME’s Brian Bennett writes, Giuliani’s record has plenty of predicates well before he emerged as former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, chief enabler, and conspiracy spouter. But the event at NYC’s City Hall in September of 1992—detailed in the second episode, airing at 10 p.m. Sunday on MSNBC—reveals a dangerous hype man for grievance in front of a crowd that can quickly turn violent, reveal its racism, and ignore the rule of law supposedly so central to its identity.

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Rudy Giuliani seen in a Mercedes similar to the one he was ordered to turn over
By DAN MERICA

Rudy Giuliani was not shy as he drove up to a polling station in Palm Beach, Florida, in a blue Mercedes that appeared to be the one a federal judge ordered him to turn over to the two Georgia election workers who won a defamation lawsuit against the former mayor of New York.

Sitting in the passenger seat of what appears to be a 1980 Mercedes-Benz 500SL, Giuliani smiled and waved to supporters and photographers at the polling place where Trump cast his ballot as he tried to reclaim the presidency.

It could not be immediately confirmed if Giuliani was riding in the same car he was supposed to turn over. The judge gave the staunch Trump supporter until October 29 to do so. U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman has ordered Giuliani to appear in a New York courtroom on Thursday to explain why he missed a deadline.

“Our lawyers have requested documentation to transfer over the title of the vehicle, and haven’t heard back from opposing counsel,” said Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman.

UPDATE (Nov. 5, 2024, 4:55 p.m. E.T.): Lawyers for Freeman and Moss filed a letter with the court Tuesday noting reports of Giuliani appearing in the Mercedes and accusing him of “flouting his obligations under the Court’s Turnover and Receivership Order.”

Freeman and Moss then filed an action against Giuliani in New York federal court, seeking to have his assets turned over to them in a receivership — and late last month, federal Judge Lewis Liman ordered Giuliani to turn over most of his assets, his multi-million dollar Manhattan condominium, and even a 1980s Mercedes Benz convertible once owned by legendary actress Lauren Bacall to the women. That judge also ordered Giuliani to hand over control of those assets within seven days.

But when the women’s lawyers were given keys to Giuliani’s condo last week, they found it “substantially empty;” through further correspondence with Giuliani’s lawyers, they then learned that many of Giuliani’s valuables, which they expected to find in the apartment itself, had been transferred to storage in Long Island and that the Mercedes was already in Florida. And as the women’s lawyers represented to the judge, Giuliani still has not transferred any property to them.

.....Rudy being Rudy, he just can’t help himself. He now reportedly lives in a condo in Palm Beach, which he is trying to prevent Freeman and Moss from seizing by claiming it as his primary residence under Florida’s “homestead” law. And Tuesday morning, Giuliani was driven in to Trump’s polling station as a passenger in the Mercedes the judge ordered him to hand over to Freeman and Moss by Oct. 29.

Lawyers for Freeman and Moss declined to comment on this development. In the meantime, Giuliani’s lawyers have represented to the court that he cannot be in New York Thursday because he is contractually committed to a radio broadcast, his equipment is in Florida, and his radio work is his sole source of “earned income.” The court denied Giuliani’s request for failing to show any “good cause,” and reiterated that he must appear personally.

Whatever the outcome of Tuesday's election, something tells me that based on what he said after the last election and how he continues to flout the law, Thursday is going to be a rough day for Giuliani.