I’d ‘smile’ if Rudy Giuliani is convicted under RICO

He may be a former wiseguy — but he’s still a wise ass.

Ex-mobster Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano says he wants to “smile” and “wave” at Rudy Giuliani in court — should the former New York City mayor get locked up under the same anti-organized crime laws he used to take down the mob.

“He has put hundreds of people away using that RICO law,” Gravano told The Post on Thursday. “Now, how does he feel that this RICO law [is] hitting him in the ass and he may go away?”

Gravano —  a one-time underboss for the Gambino crime family who flipped and turned on John Gotti — said he has plenty to gloat about now that the former federal prosecutor has been pinched.

When Giuliani was a feared Manhattan attorney working to bring down La Cosa Nostra in the 1980s, he once told Gravano he wanted to “meet me in court so he could give me 100 years and I could rot in prison,” the ex-mobster claimed.

On Tuesday, Giuliani was charged alongside former President Donald Trump in Georgia under the very same Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations laws he famously pioneered to prosecute New York goodfellas like Gravano.


Sammy Gravano
Sammy Gravano said he’d smile and wave at Rudy Giuliani from the courtroom if the former New York City prosecutor were convicted on the new racketeering charges he was hit with this week.
Jeffrey Markowitz

Gravano, 76, who now hosts the podcast “Our Thing with Sammy the Bull,” said the indictment gives Giuliani a taste of his own medicine.

To mobsters, the charges are slice of revenge — best served cold.

“If he does time and gets life in prison, I could smile at him and wave to him,” Gravano said. “How does he feel about this RICO law that he used so many times against Italian mafiosos?”

Gravano, of Arizona, said he’d “like to be there” if Giuliani was convicted and sent to prison.

He added that he’s very familiar with the law, which sent him to prison, and said it was overbroad.


Rudy Giuliani
As a Manhattan prosecutor, Giuliani pioneered the use of the RICO laws to help put away a slew of mobsters.
Getty Images

“It’s very wide, it’s very powerful and when they use it in a corrupt way its hundreds if not thousands of people in prison across the country,” Gravano said.

Giuliani, 79, along with Trump, 77, and 17 other defendants were charged in the case alleging a sweeping plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Giuliani and Trump have denied any wrongdoing.

On Wednesday, Giuliani slammed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for bringing the case against him.


Young Rudy Giuliani
Giuliani was a Manhattan prosecutor in the 1980s where he made his name putting members of La Cosa Nostra behind bars.
AP

“This is a ridiculous application of the racketeering statute,” Giuliani said. “There’s probably no one that knows it better than I do.”

Gravano is not the only former or current mobster rejoicing at the news of the criminal charges mounted against Giuliani, one noted mob attorney told The Post.

“My clients are freaking thrilled,” said Murray Richman — who’s repped myriad Genovese and Lucchese crime family members. “They are thrilled that Rudy is getting his comeuppance.”


John Gotti/John Gravano
Gravano cooperated with prosecutors to help bring down infamous mob boss John Gotti.
Getty Images

Richman said that the one-time mayor was overzealous and treated his clients “badly.”

The seasoned defense attorney called some of the cases Giuliani brought “marginal,” and said many of them were “stacked against” his clients.

“This is the chickens coming home to roost,” Richman said.

Richman said he read the Georgia indictment and that if it’s true, prosecutors had good cause to bring it.

“I’m a person who has been around for 60 years in the law, that is a tightly written indictment,” Richman said.


Sammy Gravano.
Gravano helped prosecutors put away over 40 wiseguys from multiple crime families.
Sygma via Getty Images

As for Trump, Gravano said, “I sympathize with him now” because he’ll be held responsible for what everyone else in the case did — and prosecutors will likely try to get people to “flip” on him.

“Some of those 19 people will flip and now his case will be even worse,” Gravano said. “This powerful RICO law, a couple of people flipping — he’s going to go through a nightmare.”

Gravano was sentenced to just five years behind bar for his sweeping cooperation and testimony that helped put Gotti, Frank Locasio and some 39 additional mobsters away — including Genovese head Vincent “The Chin” Gigante and bosses and underbosses from the Colombo, Lucchese and DeCavalcante families.

Gravano admitted to whacking 19 people during his time in the mob as part of his cooperation.

“Rudy Giuliani fearlessly took down the once untouchable Mafia, cleaned up the streets of New York City and comforted the nation following 9/11, while Sammy Gravano is a career criminal turned informer who admitted to being involved in 19 murders,” Ted Goodman, an advisor to Giuliani, said in an emailed statement. “What does it tell you about this indictment when these are the people celebrating it?”