Giuliani to Quit, Hints at Run for N.Y. Mayor : High-Profile U.S. Attorney’s Targets Included Organized Crime Figures and Corrupt Officials

U.S. Atty. Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has prosecuted Mafia chieftains, millionaire Wall Street insider traders, corrupt municipal officials and drug kingpins, announced Tuesday he would resign at the end of the month amid speculation he might run for mayor of New York City.

Giuliani, 44, whose high-profile cases earned him a national reputation as a crime fighter, declined to disclose his future plans, but showed interest in continuing public service.

The dark-haired, quick-spoken Republican with a penchant for gathering headlines refused to rule out a race for mayor against Democrat Edward I. Koch, who in all probability will seek a record fourth term at City Hall this year.

“I can’t answer that question,” Giuliani responded, when pressed by reporters about any mayoral ambitions. “I have not shut the door on the possibility of running for mayor.”

He added, however, that he was “not close” to making a decision about the mayoral race.

‘Superb Prosecutor’

Koch called the outgoing U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York “a superb prosecutor” and admitted Giuliani would be a “very formidable candidate.” The mayor pointedly wished him well--”in the private sector.”

“Rudy Giuliani has been an outstanding U.S. attorney,” said Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh in Washington. “He can be extremely proud of the record of his five and one-half years . . . , particularly in the areas of organized crime and official corruption.”

While serving as U.S. attorney, Giuliani gained convictions of the leaders of New York’s five organized crime families, brought historic insider trading cases that resulted in guilty pleas from financier Ivan F. Boesky, investment banker Dennis B. Levine and the securities firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert.

Giuliani said Tuesday he believed the Wall Street cases had caused a widespread re-examination of business ethics.

He successfully prosecuted former Rep. Mario Biaggi, a one-time hero policeman, on bribery charges and also obtained convictions against Bronx Democratic boss Stanley Friedman and four co-defendants on charges they turned New York City’s Parking Violations Bureau into a corrupt enterprise.

Giuliani successfully prosecuted top members of one of the world’s biggest heroin rings in the Pizza Connection case.

He also suffered some prominent defeats in court. Just before Christmas, a federal court jury found former Miss America Bess Myerson, her boyfriend Carl (Andy) Capasso and former state Judge Hortense W. Gabel not guilty of charges they conspired to reduce Capasso’s alimony payments.

At a crowded news conference in the lobby of the U.S. Attorney’s offices near the federal courthouse in Manhattan’s Foley Square, Giuliani appeared to show little interest in being considered for a Cabinet-level post as coordinator of the Bush Administration’s fight against illegal drugs.

“I have not been approached,” he said. “I have made it clear I don’t want to go to Washington. It is a job I am not pursuing.”

At this point, it appears Giuliani’s most likely path may be to join the New York office of a highly prestigious law firm while pondering his political options, which not only could include seeking New York’s City Hall, but the governor’s mansion in Albany--if Gov. Mario M. Cuomo decides to concentrate on presidential politics and not run for a third term in 1990.

While practicing law, Giuliani could quietly determine his potential fund-raising and organizational base for both the mayoral or gubernatorial races--campaigns whose possible central theme he put forth at his farewell news conference when he charged that New York would be “hiding its head in the sand” if it did not realize it was in the “bottom tier of states” in dealing with a range of problems, including bribery, corruption and the influence of organized crime.

Giuliani showed interest in running for the U.S. Senate against Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan last year but took his name out of consideration after polls showed Moynihan’s popularity high in New York state. With only token Republican opposition, the former U.N. ambassador was easily elected in November to a second term in the Senate.

Edward Lurie, executive director of the New York State Republican Committee, announced Tuesday that Giuliani and state GOP Chairman Anthony Colavita would meet soon to “discuss Giuliani’s interests.”

The model of a prosecutor’s office serving as the springboard for politics is hardly new in New York state. Thomas E. Dewey, New York’s former governor and the one-time Republican presidential nominee, was a headline-hunting Manhattan district attorney.

Traditionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan has been an extremely productive and at times fiercely independent part of the nation’s criminal justice system. That independence was demonstrated by Giuliani, who launched an investigation resulting in the indictment of E. Robert Wallach, a close confidant of then Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III and Meese’s former financial adviser, W. Franklyn Chinn, for allegedly defrauding Wedtech, a Bronx defense contractor that went bankrupt.

“Wedtech was the most difficult and sensitive case I ever handled in the U.S. Attorney’s office,” Giuliani said Tuesday. “ . . . It wasn’t a very easy period.”

Giuliani will leave office with his close friend and chief spokesman, Dennison Young Jr., the deputy U.S. attorney in the Southern District. Giuliani indicated they hoped to continue their close relationship over the years, perhaps practicing law together, or engaging in public service.

Until a new U.S. attorney is appointed, Benito Romano, who was a key Giuliani aide, will return from private law practice to act as interim head of the office, at the request of Atty. Gen. Thornburgh.

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