Man seen at Rudy Giuliani's 80th birthday party did not serve him with papers | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: Photo shows a US marshal who served Rudy Giuliani with indictment notice

A May 19 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows an image of Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and ally of former President Donald Trump, as he celebrates his 80th birthday surrounded by a group of people. A man standing behind him is circled in red.

“So when Rudy Giuliani was celebrating his 80th birthday and taunting Arizona officials online about being successful at hiding out from them serving indictment documents, a US marshal had already inserted himself into Giuliani’s party and was eating cake,” the post’s caption reads. “Here he is singing happy birthday, just moments before dropping the documents on Rudy. Legendary move."

The post was liked more than 1,000 times in three days. The claim was also shared on Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: False

The man in the image is not one of the two agents who served Giuliani an indictment notice in connection to an alleged scheme to overturn 2020 election results, a spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General’s office told USA TODAY. And the agents who served Giuliani weren't U.S. marshals.

Giuliani served with notice after mocking authorities

In April, a grand jury in Arizona charged 11 state Republicans and seven former aides to Trump, including Giuliani, in an alleged scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state. President Joe Biden won the state, not Trump.

Arizona prosecutors reportedly tried for weeks to serve Giuliani notice of his indictment – something he mocked in an X post while celebrating his birthday on May 17.

“If Arizona authorities can’t find me by tomorrow morning: 1. They must dismiss the indictment; 2. They must concede they can’t count votes,” he wrote.

Arizona's Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes announced just hours after Giuliani shared the X post that the former mayor had been served his indictment. Giuliani later deleted his X post.

The image in the Threads post appears to be a screenshot of a video Giuliani streamed live on YouTube on May 17 in which a group of people gather around him to sing "Happy Birthday." The man circled in red appears to be a guest invited to stand behind the mayor and sing on camera.

Richie Taylor, spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General’s office, confirmed the man was not one of the two agents that served Giuliani.

“Our agents did not enter the party. They waited to serve Mr. Giuliani outside after he left,” Taylor told USA TODAY.

He also said Giuliani was served by agents of the Arizona Attorney General's Office, not U.S. marshals.

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Mayes told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on "The Source" that agents were able to locate Giuliani in Palm Beach, Florida, as a result of his live streams. He pleaded not guilty on May 21 to all nine felony charges in the indictment, USA TODAY reported.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Man at Rudy Giuliani party wasn't agent who served him | Fact check