Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and personal attorney to President Donald Trump, has tested positive for COVID-19, Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon.
"Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!” Trump wrote in his Twitter post.
The 76-year-old former New York mayor has traveled extensively to battleground states in an effort to help Trump subvert his election loss to Joe Biden. On numerous occasions he has met with officials for hours at a time without wearing a mask.
Trump, who announced Giuliani’s positive test in a Sunday afternoon tweet, wished him a speedy recovery. The president later told reporters he spoke with Giuliani on Monday.
“Rudy’s doing very well,” Trump said. “I just spoke to him. No temperature.”
Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, but on Sunday evening he retweeted Trump’s announcement of his diagnosis.
On Monday, he wrote on Twitter that he is "feeling good" after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
Giuliani was admitted Sunday to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.
According to the CDC, Giuliani, 76, who battled prostate cancer 20 years ago, would qualify as a person “at risk for severe COVID-19 illness.”
The former mayor is currently leading President Trump’s legal fight over the election, though he has suffered multiple crucial defeats in state courts across the country in battleground states.
Giuliani is the latest in a long line of people in Trump’s orbit to test positive for the virus.
The list includes Giuliani’s son Andrew, who works in the White House.
It also includes Trump himself, who was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after testing positive.
First Lady Melania Trump, Trump’s sons Barron and Donald Trump Jr., White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and senior adviser Stephen Miller are among the other close Trump contacts who have tested positive dating back to October.
Giuliani on Thursday attended a hearing at the Georgia Capitol, where he went without a mask for several hours. Several state senators, all Republicans, also did not wear masks at the hearing.
On Wednesday night, Giuliani was in Lansing, Michigan, to testify in a highly unusual 4 1/2-hour legislative hearing in which he pushed Republican lawmakers to ignore the certification of Biden’s Michigan victory and appoint electors for Trump. He did not wear a mask, nor did lawyer Jenna Ellis, who was sitting next to him. He asked one of his witnesses, a Detroit election worker, if she would be comfortable removing her mask, but legislators said they could hear her.
Giuliani traveled on Monday to Phoenix, where he met with Republican legislators for an hourslong hearing in which he was maskless. The Arizona Republican Party tweeted a photo of Giuliani and several state GOP lawmakers standing shoulder-to-shoulder and maskless. The Arizona legislature announced Sunday, after Giuliani’s diagnosis became public, that it would close for a week out of an abundance of caution “for recent cases and concerns relating to COVID-19.”
The Trump campaign said in a statement that Giuliani tested negative twice before his visits to Arizona, Michigan and Georgia. Unidentified Trump team members who had close contact with Giuliani are in self-isolation.
Research shows that people who contract the virus may become infectious to others several days before they start to feel ill.
“The Mayor did not experience any symptoms or test positive for COVID-19 until more than 48 hours after his return,” according to the statement. “No legislators in any state or members of the press are on the contact tracing list, under current CDC Guidelines.”
Giuliani also appeared maskless at a Nov. 25 hearing in Pennsylvania. And he did not quarantine after being near an infected person at a Nov. 19 news conference at the Republican National Committee’s headquarters. His son Andrew Giuliani, who is a White House aide, announced a day after the event that he had tested positive for the virus.
Georgia state Sen. Jen Jordan, a Democrat who attended Thursday’s hearing, expressed outrage after learning of Giuliani’s diagnosis.
“Little did I know that most credible death threat that I encountered last week was Trump’s own lawyer,” Jordan tweeted. “Giuliani — maskless, in packed hearing room for 7 hours. To say I am livid would be too kind.”
This is a developing story. Check back later for further updates.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.