Twenty years ago, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was being heralded for helping rid the city of criminals and for his leadership efforts after the 9/11 attacks, but in 2020 it appears he has fallen from grace.
The 76-year-old has been caught up in US President Donald Trump's failing attempts to prove voter fraud while commanding a high fee, overshadowing his own speech at a recent press conference, and being tricked in the latest Borat movie.
So where did it all go wrong?
Giuliani ran for New York Mayor in 1993, winning by a small margin to become the city's first Republican mayor since 1965, news.com.au reported.
During his seven-year tenure, Giuliani instituted the Zero Tolerance policy on crime, cracking down on minor offences, and crime rates in the city continued to drop.
When terrorists hijacked four planes and successfully flew three of them into major US landmarks on the morning of September 11, 2001, Giuliani appeared confident and in control in comparison to then-president George W Bush's response.
For his leadership, Oprah Winfrey dubbed him "America's Mayor" and Giuliani appeared on the cover of Time Magazine and was given an honorary British knighthood.
In the 2016 election, he campaigned for Republican Donald Trump, who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton to clinch the presidency.
Just before his inauguration, Trump appointed Giuliani as an informal adviser. In April 2018, Trump made Giuliani his personal lawyer.
US 2020 Election
When Democratic nominee Joe Biden appeared to pull in front in the race for the White House a few days after the 2020 election, Trump launched legal campaigns across the US alleging voter fraud.
He put Giuliani, who last represented a client in court in 1992, in charge of the lawsuits.
During his first appearance in a courtroom in three decades in Pennsylvania, his legal argument was described as "disgraceful in an American courtroom", according to news.com.au.
The Associated Press reported the "rusty" veteran "fiddled with his Twitter account", forgot the names of the judge and opposing counsel, struggled to answer questions, and at one point forgot the meaning of the word "opacity", confusing it for transparency - the opposite.
Last week he continued to post on Twitter about "compelling allegations of voting irregularities in the 2020 election" and "multiple pathways to victory".
Many of his posts have now been slapped with the disclaimer: "This claim about election fraud is disputed."
Price and Four Seasons
During an investigation into Trump's ties to Russia, Giuliani claimed he wasn't paid for his legal representation of the US President.
However, it was later revealed that he had earned US$20,000 (NZ$28,466) a day, according to The New York Times.
Then there was the press conference in the car park of a Philadelphia landscaping company on November 7.
The update, which was billed as a major press event, was supposed to take place at Philadelphia's Four Seasons Hotel but there was confusion with the location and it ended up taking place at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a family business between a crematorium and an adult book store on the city outskirts.
Giuliani, who was speaking at the event, was ridiculed for the mixup.
Borat
In a prank for the 2020 Borat film, Borat's daughter 15-year-old Tutar poses as a far-right journalist and somehow manages to get Giuliani to agree to an interview about the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the interview, he coughs without a mask, drinks spirits, flirts with Tutar, and agrees to eat a bat.
Afterward, the two move to a hotel room where Tutar removes Giuliani's microphone, as he pats her on the back. When she turns away, he lies on the bed and sticks his hand down his pants.
Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Borat, then bursts in and shouts, "She's 15. She's too old for you".
Giuliani's response when the footage was aired was: "I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment.
"At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar," he wrote on Twitter.
The Sweat Incident
During another important press conference on November 19, Giuliani backed his client Trump's claims of US election fraud, but it isn't what caught everyone's attention.
Giuliani appeared to sweat out hair dye with streaks running down both sides of his face.
Adding insult to injury, Trump's official YouTube feed of the press conference accidentally aired remarks from members of his team laughing about the streaks on Giuliani's cheeks.
"Do you see f**king Rudy's hair dye dripping down his face?" one man could be heard laughing. "I can't believe they leak," another said.
