Editing Rudy Giuliani (section)

===U.S. associate deputy attorney general===
Giuliani switched his party registration from Democratic to Independent in 1975.<ref name="Newfield-2002" /> This occurred during a period of time in which he was recruited for a position in [[Washington, D.C.]], with the [[Presidency of Gerald Ford|Ford administration]]: Giuliani served as the [[associate deputy attorney general]] and [[Chief of staff (politics)|chief of staff]] to [[United States Deputy Attorney General|Deputy Attorney General]] [[Harold R. Tyler Jr.|Harold "Ace" Tyler]].<ref name="Newfield-2002" />

His first high-profile prosecution was of Democratic [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representative]] [[Bertram L. Podell]] ([[New York's 13th congressional district|NY-13]]), who was convicted of corruption. Podell pleaded guilty to conspiracy and conflict of interest for accepting more than $41,000 in campaign contributions and legal fees from a Florida airline to obtain federal rights for a Bahama route. Podell, who maintained a legal practice while serving in Congress, said the payments were legitimate legal fees. ''[[The Washington Post]]'' later reported, "The trial catapulted future New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani to front-page status when, as assistant U.S. attorney, he relentlessly cross-examined an initially calm Rep. Podell. The congressman reportedly grew more flustered and eventually decided to plead guilty."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/21/AR2005082101051.html |title=Convicted Politician Bertram Podell, 79 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=August 22, 2005 |access-date=April 6, 2023 |archive-date=October 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023115620/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/21/AR2005082101051.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

From 1977 to 1981, during the [[Presidency of Jimmy Carter|Carter administration]], Giuliani practiced law at the [[Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler]] [[law firm]], as chief of staff to his former boss, Ace Tyler. In later years, Tyler became "disillusioned" by what Tyler described as Giuliani's time as US Attorney, criticizing several of his prosecutions as "overkill".<ref name="Newfield-2002" />

On December 8, 1980, one month after [[1980 United States presidential election|the election of Ronald Reagan]] brought Republicans back to power in Washington, he switched his party affiliation from Independent to Republican.<ref name="Newfield-2002" /> Giuliani later said the switches were because he found Democratic policies "naïve", and that "by the time I moved to Washington, the Republicans had come to make more sense to me."<ref name="Burton-2007" /> Others suggested that the switches were made in order to get positions in the Justice Department.<ref name="Newfield-2002" /> Giuliani's mother maintained in 1988 that he "only became a Republican after he began to get all these jobs from them. He's definitely not a conservative Republican. He thinks he is, but he isn't. He still feels very sorry for the poor."<ref name="Newfield-2002" />