Jacquelyn Martin/AP
- Rudy Giuliani will be a contestant on the upcoming season of “The Masked Singer,” according to Deadline.
- The report said that Giuliani was unmasked last week while taping the show’s first episode.
- His alleged appearance comes nearly 2 years after Sarah Palin performed “Baby’s Got Back” on the show.
Rudy Giuliani, whose decades-long career has included serving as mayor of New York City and legal counsel for former President Donald Trump, has reportedly found his next, albeit temporary, gig: a masked singer.
According to Deadline, the former US attorney is a contestant on the upcoming season of Fox’s prime time show “The Masked Singer.” The theme of the yet-unaired season is “The Good, The Bad, and The Cuddly.” TMZ also reported that Giuliani participated in the show.
The singing competition series features celebrity contestants wearing intricate head-to-toe costumes that hide their identities as they perform songs for a live audience and a panel of famous judges. With the help of clues, panelists attempt to guess each performer’s identity as the audience votes for their favorite singer. The least popular contestant is eliminated each episode, removing their mask and revealing their identity.
Giuliani was unmasked last week during the taping of the upcoming season’s first episode, Deadline reported.
According to the outlet, two of the celebrity judges, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke, immediately left the stage in protest after Giuliani revealed his identity. The show’s two other hosts, Jenny McCarthy and Nicole Sherzinger, reportedly remained onstage to chat with Giuliani.
A spokesperson for Fox declined to comment and Giuliani did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. A representative for Jeong declined to comment and a publicist for Thicke did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Giuliani’s alleged appearance is not the first time a polarizing Republican politician has taken the “Masked Singer” stage. In March 2020, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was unveiled as the Bear after performing Six Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.”
—andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) March 12, 2020
The seventh season of “The Masked Singer” premieres on March 9, 2022, where Giuliani is expected to make his first, and last, appearance.
Giuliani gained nationwide attention combatting organized crime as the head of the Manhattan US attorney’s office, then as New York City’s mayor, and most recently as Trump’s former personal defense attorney.
But his fortunes took a turn when it surfaced that he was the focus of a federal criminal investigation, led by the US attorney’s office that he once spearheaded, into whether he violated foreign lobbying laws.
Giuliani also played a principal role in Trump’s pressure campaign against the Ukrainian government to launch politically motivated investigations targeting the Bidens, which ultimately resulted in Trump’s first impeachment. Giuliani’s involvement in Trump’s efforts was so intense that the FBI later learned that the Russian government was using him as a tool to spread disinformation about Ukraine before the 2020 election.
After Trump lost the 2020 election, Giuliani spearheaded his failed legal campaign to overturn the election results. In addition to spouting conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud and election malfeasance, Giuliani accused multiple election vendors of conspiring to tilt the race in Biden’s favor. He’s since been temporarily suspended from practicing law in New York and Washington, DC, and he’s facing defamation lawsuits from Dominion and Smartmatic.
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors also gained access to thousands of Giuliani’s communications that were uncovered from FBI raids on his properties last year.
Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, told The Washington Post that his client did not break the law: “There’s no [Foreign Agents Registration Act] violation. Rudy Giuliani didn’t do anything illegal or unlawful.”
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