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WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani tested positive for Covid-19, Trump said on Sunday (Dec. 6), prompting a state legislature to shut down during a week after Giuliani visited him to try to persuade lawmakers to help reverse Trump’s decision. electoral defeat.
Giuliani, 76, is the latest in a long line of people close to the White House, including Trump himself, sickened by a pandemic that has killed more than 280,000 Americans.
“@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in New York history, and who has been working tirelessly to expose the most corrupt election (by far!) In US history, has tested positive for the China virus “Trump said. using a term for Covid-19 that has generated backlash.
Giuliani tweeted his thanks to “friends and followers” Sunday night for their concern for him.
“I am receiving a lot of attention and I feel good. I am recovering quickly and I am up to date with everything,” he wrote on Twitter.
Two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that Rudy Giuliani was at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington DC on Sunday and one said he had been admitted for treatment.
The hospital did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation.
Giuliani has been spearheading Trump’s hesitant effort to reverse his Nov. 3 election loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden through a series of lawsuits.
Both Trump and Giuliani have repeatedly claimed, contrary to the evidence, that the result was marred by widespread fraud.
State and federal officials have repeatedly said there is no evidence of fraud on a significant scale.
Giuliani visited Georgia on Thursday, where he urged state lawmakers to halt certification of Biden’s victory after making similar remarks in Michigan on Wednesday and Arizona on Monday.
Following news of Giuliani’s test, the Arizona state legislature said it would close both houses this week as a precaution “due to recent Covid-19 related cases and concerns.”
Giuliani met there last week with a dozen Republican lawmakers.
The Trump campaign released a statement from the president’s legal team Sunday night saying Giuliani had tested negative just before his trip to the three states.
“Mayor Giuliani tested negative twice immediately prior to his trip to Arizona, Michigan and Georgia. The mayor did not experience any symptoms or test positive for Covid-19 until more than 48 hours after his return,” the statement said.
“No legislators in any state or members of the press are on the contact tracing list, according to current CDC (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines.”
He said other members of the president’s legal team “who define himself as having had close contact” will follow their doctors’ orders and CDC guidelines on self-isolation and testing.
Trump and many of his close associates have resisted advice from public health officials to wear masks and avoid crowds to stop the transmission of the respiratory disease, which has reached record levels in the United States as winter approaches. .
Giuliani, who developed an international profile as “mayor of the United States” for his leadership after the September 11, 2001 attacks, has faced mounting legal problems during the Trump administration.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have been investigating Giuliani’s business dealings in Ukraine, and two associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, have been charged with campaign finance violations.
Giuliani has not been criminally charged and has denied wrongdoing. Parnas and Fruman have pleaded not guilty.
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