Rudy Giuliani found in contempt for dragging feet in defamation case
New York Judge Lewis Liman found former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court Monday. He cited Giuliani’s failure to respond to requests for information as he turned over assets to satisfy a $148 million defamation judgement against him.
The former New York City mayor had finished two days of testimony in his contempt hearing, admitting to dragging his heels on requests for evidence to comply with the $148 million in damages he owes to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia election workers he defamed in his unfounded 2020 election denialism claims.
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy shortly after the decision, and he fought at every point to keep assets like a Mercedes Benz, a luxury New York City penthouse, and a whole lot of watches.
Attorneys for the two election workers told the court that Giuliani had exercised a pattern of half-steps in the process of turning over money and assets in compliance with the defamation judgement.
They said in court papers that he has turned over a Mercedes-Benz and his New York apartment but not the paperwork necessary to monetize the assets. And they said he has failed to surrender watches and sports memorabilia, including a Joe DiMaggio jersey, and has not turned over “a single dollar from his nonexempt cash accounts.”
In November, Giuliani’s lawyers filed a motion to withdraw as his counsel, citing their “fundamental disagreement” with their client and adding that Giuliani “fails to cooperate in the representation or otherwise renders the representation unreasonably difficult for the lawyer to carry out employment effectively.”
Giuliani has said he believes that his fall from grace—losing his New York law license, being disbarred in Washington, D.C., and his legacy of fraud and bankruptcy—will help him “in heaven.”
Maybe? Probably not.