Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani is struggling to salvage his candidacy as pressure mounts for him to come clean regarding his health and his alleged association with criminal elements while mayor of New York.
Last week, Mr Giuliani’s complaint of “the worst headache that I have ever had” forced his plane to turn around only minutes into its flight from St Louis to New York.
“They tested me up and down and sideways, and I'm in great health,” said Mr Giuliani. “This was something that came about because I'm tired, not sleeping, who knows exactly why, but I had a very bad headache and they were concerned it might be other things. They ruled out every other possibility. It was just a bad headache.”
On the campaign trail, a more serious headache looms for Mr Giuliani, who now needs to reassure voters of his integrity after a close friend of his former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik turned informant in a criminal investigation.
Lawrence Ray, who is now in prison on felony charges, has provided authorities with boxes of documents that demonstrate Mr Kerik’s alleged criminal activities.
Mr Kerik has now pleaded guilty to state ethics charges and is under federal indictment.
Mr Ray’s emails, memos, faxes, financial statements and photographs shed light on his close dealings with the Giuliani administration in New York during the 1990s.
In one case, Mr Ray used his contacts to arrange a personal meeting between Mr Giuliani and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, for which municipal (not FBI) security was provided.
The evidence also points to unseemly associations between Mr Giuliani and a New Jersey construction company with alleged ties to local organized crime.
Denying any involvement in criminal activities, Mr Giuliani has distanced himself from Mr Kerik and Mr Ray.
He recently told NBC’s Meet the Press, “I made a mistake in not vetting [Mr Kerik] carefully enough. And it’s my responsibility. I should have.”
Mr Giuliani has faced a barrage of skepticism regarding his ethical behavior since declaring his candidacy, including questions about his alleged use of taxpayer-funded security services to rendezvous with his mistress Judith Nathan (now his wife) while married to actress Donna Hanover.
Once the national GOP frontrunner in the presidential race, largely due to his position as mayor of New York at the time of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Mr Giuliani has seen his lead increasingly slip and is now tied with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney at 20 percent in the national primary voter polls.
This represents a 13 point decline for Mr Giuliani since last month.
