Rudy Giuliani, a top Trump attorney, was convicted in contempt of court by a federal judge in New York for failing to provide two former Georgia election workers he defamed with information about his holdings.
After Giuliani testified for two days to answer questions about why he had not turned over assets and court-ordered discovery information to help satisfy Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Shaye Moss’s $146 million defamation judgment against him, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman made the contempt finding Monday afternoon.
Liman claimed that Giuliani, the former U.S. attorney and mayor of New York, “willfully violated an unambiguous order of the court” by not providing information when he was required to.
“The defendant has attempted to run the clock by stalling,” he stated.
“Discovery is not supposed to be a shell game where the hidden ball is moved around and around,” he stated.
He stated that he would make a decision regarding “appropriate sanctions” against Giuliani later.
Earlier in the day, Giuliani gave a remote statement from his home in Florida, telling his attorney Joseph Cammarata that he had attempted to follow the court’s directions in the case and that his former lawyer was to blame for any previous infractions. Additionally, he bemoaned the challenges he has faced in managing his numerous court actions, which include two criminal proceedings and two additional defamation suits pertaining to his efforts to reverse the 2020 election results.
“Some days it is completely impossible because there are conflicting demands for material and appearances on the same day,” added Giuliani.
He said that he had located other important documents that Freeman and Moss had been awaiting, including the title to his Mercedes-Benz convertible and the proprietary lease for his multimillion-dollar Manhattan flat.
However, both documents must be altered before Freeman and Moss’ lawyers can utilize them because they list his divorced wife on the titles.
In order to settle the $146 million judgment, Freeman and Moss had requested that the judge hold Giuliani in civil contempt for his refusal to provide information and to give up a number of expensive items, including a New York Yankees jersey signed by Hall of Fame player Joe DiMaggio.
In their defamation action against Giuliani, the two were granted the amount. They claimed that Giuliani had distributed false information regarding Trump’s 2020 election defeat, which led to a barrage of racial and violent threats directed at them.
After Giuliani regularly missed deadlines to give up assets and financial data, their lawyers had urged Liman in a court document to apply the proper consequences to encourage Giuliani to comply with court orders.
Monsignor Alan Placa, a friend, claimed to have seen the DiMaggio jersey framed on Giuliani’s Palm Beach, Florida, residence during the previous two years, but Giuliani rejected this claim on Friday.
Giuliani stated on Monday that he is still looking for the jersey. “I don’t know where it is, and it is hard to re-create who took it, and I am personally conducting my own investigation about this,” he stated.
Giuliani denied hiding other Yankees memorabilia at his Friday court appearance. He claimed that he was not concealing a signed photo of Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, which the election worker’s lawyer claimed was listed as an asset in a bankruptcy filing.
Freeman and Moss’s attorneys have contended that Giuliani has shown a pattern of deliberate disregard for the Court’s Turnover Orders. They have pointed to his refusal to turn over the title document for his Mercedes, which once belonged to Hollywood star Lauren Bacall, the cash in his bank account, and the proprietary lease and co-op shares to the estimated $6 million Manhattan apartment.
“It’s tragic to watch as our justice system has been turned into a total mockery, where we have charades instead of actual hearings and trials,” Giuliani spokeswoman Ted Goodman said in a statement.
On January 16, a trial will take place in the New York case to decide if Giuliani’s Florida condo and his Yankees World Series rings, which he claims he gave to his son years ago, are still in his possession.
This week, Giulianii is now facing a second contempt case in Washington, D.C., regarding whether he should be punished for continuing to disparage Freeman and Moss on his America’s Mayor Live webcast in violation of a court order.
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