Rudolph W. Giuliani is the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the former Mayor of New York City, and the former personal attorney to U.S. President Donald Trump. He is identified by John Kiriakou as having attempted, in 2018, to extort approximately $2 million from Kiriakou in exchange for arranging a presidential pardon.[1][2]
The 2018 pardon-extortion attempt
In 2018, on the introduction of former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernie Kerik, Kiriakou — accompanied by his attorney Bruce Fein, a former Deputy Attorney General under President Reagan — met Giuliani and an unnamed Giuliani aide at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. The meeting was scheduled for 11 a.m. because, per Giuliani’s aide on the phone the prior week, “Rudy is not very good by 2 o’clock” — Kiriakou: “and he makes this motion. And I said, ‘I can’t believe I’m surprised by that.’”[3][4]
The meeting opened with small talk (the weather, the Mets); when Kiriakou raised the question of a pardon, Giuliani — per Kiriakou — said “anybody know where the pisser is,” stood up, and walked away. The aide then turned to Kiriakou: “You never talk about a pardon to Rudy. You talk to me, and I talk to Rudy. … Rudy’s gonna want $2 million.”[2][5]
Kiriakou’s response: “First of all, I don’t have $2 million. I will never have $2 million. Secondly, why in the world would I spend $2 million to recoup a $700,000 pension?” He left.[6]
Disclosure to the New York Times
The same evening, at an unrelated Republican National Committee book launch, Kiriakou described the incident to TSA whistleblower Robert MacLean, who immediately called the FBI to report the attempted bribery; the FBI declined interest. MacLean instead called the New York Times. Reporter Mike Schmidt — a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner — contacted Kiriakou; with Bruce Fein’s approval Kiriakou went on the record. The story ran on the Sunday front page. Giuliani’s response to Schmidt was that he had never met Kiriakou and did not know who he was. Kiriakou then sent Schmidt a photograph of Giuliani posing alongside him at the meeting; the Times published a noting that “the New York Times has seen evidence that the meeting took place.”[7][8][9][10]
Independent corroboration via Noelle Dunphy
The same evening — back in New York — Giuliani told his aide Noelle Dunphy that he had “tried to get $2 million out of this guy for a pardon today.” Dunphy retained the information until Giuliani’s subsequent sexual harassment of her, at which point she contacted the New York Times and corroborated Kiriakou’s account in full.[11][12]
Civil suit
Kiriakou is, as of November 2024, actively pursuing a civil suit against Giuliani arising from the extortion attempt: “I sue everybody. … That was one of my suits. It’s going forward.”[13][14]
9/11 air quality and Mamdani
In September 2026, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Zohran Mamdani — then New York’s mayor — announced a $34 million transparency portal releasing municipal records on what city officials had known about post-attack air quality at Ground Zero. Kiriakou’s summary of the underlying finding: “Giuliani and Bloomberg both said, ‘No, no, the air is fine. It’s fine. Everything’s settled. The dust settled. We hosed it all down. It’s fine.’ It wasn’t fine. It’s given everybody cancer.” Per The New York Times, which Kiriakou cites, “cancers new cancers are still sprouting from the air in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.”[15][16]
The announcement, Kiriakou argues, was pointed. Giuliani had said that week that Mamdani “should not be allowed to attend the commemoration events of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.” Kiriakou renders the underlying position bluntly: “Because he is Muslim, that means that he must support terrorism. So he has to be banned. … Giuliani’s position — all Muslims are bad.”[17][18]
The scoreboard Kiriakou reaches for is the polling. Mamdani was elected with a 48% approval rating; by September 2026 he stood at 69%, “including … a majority of Jewish voters” per The New York Times. Kiriakou’s coda on Giuliani: “He belongs in prison for the remainder of his natural life.”[18][19]
Kiriakou’s general assessment
Rudy Giuliani dies in prison. That’s my prediction.[20]