Joe DiMaggio, where have you gone?
Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former attorney, testified Friday in a New York courtroom over whether he should be placed in contempt of court for disobeying court orders, including neglecting to turn over a signed Yankees Hall of Fame jersey.
Two months ago, the pricey jersey was scheduled to be turned over in order to help Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Shaye Moss fulfill their $146 million defamation judgment against Giuliani.
According to Giuliani, he last saw the jersey at his New York apartment in September. He told their lawyer during his almost three hours on the witness on Friday, “I can’t tell you when it would have been moved because it’s missing.”
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman should find Giuliani in civil contempt for failing to turn over the jersey and other things he has been repeatedly requested to surrender, according to the attorneys for the former Georgia election workers.
Giuliani will continue to answer questions from his own attorney via video conference on Monday.
On Friday, Giuliani had also attempted to testify remotely. In a letter on Thursday, his lawyer requested that the judge allow his client to appear virtually because he is experiencing breathing difficulties and medical problems with his left knee as a result of lung issues that were discovered last year as a result of his presence at the World Trade Center site following the 9/11 attacks.
Liman expressed his skepticism about the last-minute request, pointing out that Giuliani did not claim he was unable to fly, that he had not provided any medical documentation, and that he had not followed the correct protocol for this kind of request.
According to Liman, he has not provided any proof as to why he should be allowed to appear remotely and deny the plaintiffs the chance to cross-examine him in person during this hearing, where the court has been asked to hold him in contempt and his credibility has been questioned.
Giuliani was not ordered to attend the court, but he was cautioned that if he did not, he would not be able to use his recent sworn declarations and the transcript of his deposition as part of his defense.
Joseph Cammarata, Giuliani’s lawyer, informed NBC News Thursday night that his client would be present, and Giuliani arrived at the court promptly. He limped a little when he entered the courtroom.
After Giuliani ignored multiple deadlines to turn up his assets and financial information, Freeman and Moss’s attorneys urged the judge to take action against him.
In a court filing, they stated that enough was enough and urged Liman to punish Giuliani severely in order to get him to follow the directives. The judge could punish Giuliani or possibly put him in jail if he finds him in contempt, but their filing did not outline what those penalties should be.
Giuliani blamed his former attorney for the delays and stated in his testimony that he has been making an effort to follow the judge’s directives. When asked why he disregarded a court order to provide information regarding doctors and lawyers he had spoken to, Giuliani responded that he had done so because he thought the request was oppressive and too general.
His claim of ignorance regarding the location of the jersey, which Freeman and Moss’s lawyers have deemed untrustworthy, was another point of contention.
The testimony of Monsignor Alan Placa, one of Giuliani’s closest friends, is one factor contributing to the mistrust.
Placa testified under oath during his recent deposition that he had not traveled to New York in seven years but that he had personally seen the framed, signed Joe DiMaggio shirt within the last two years, and specifically at the apartment actually, it was here in Florida, their filing said.
That s certainly where I saw it, Placa added, according to a transcript of his deposition. I had never previously or since seen a Joe DiMaggio tee.
Giuliani said Placa is 100% wrong about this.
That has never been in Palm Beach, he added.
The election workers attorneys maintain the failure to hand over the memorabilia is part of a consistent pattern of willful defiance of the Court s Turnover Orders.
That includes failing to turn over the proprietary lease and co-op shares to his estimated $6 million Manhattan apartment, cash in his bank account and the paperwork for the1980 Mercedes-Benz convertiblehe belatedly surrendered in November.
While true that Mr. Giuliani delivered the Mercedes, he has yet to turn over the title document for the car, and does not claim otherwise, their filing said.
While Giuliani has turned over 18 luxury watches, he hasn t surrendered eight others he said he owned in a bankruptcy filing last year, including one that he said had belonged to his grandfather that he was expressly ordered to turn over.
Giuliani suggested to reporters in early November that he doesn t believe he has to turn over that watch, despite the judge s ruling.
Every bit of property that they want is available if they re entitled to it. Now the law says they re not entitled to a lot of it. For example, they want my grandfather s watch; it s 150 years old. That s a bit of an heirloom usually you don t get those unless you re involved in a political persecution, he said.
In court Friday, Giuliani said he had yet to turn it over for fear it could get lost or damaged. It s one thing that means something to me, he said.
Giuliani was also accused of failing to turn over other Yankees memorabilia, including a signed picture of another Hall of Famer, Reggie Jackson, the lawyers said. Giuliani said in a court filing that he doesn t have such a photo. There is no Reggie Jackson picture; the picture was Derek Jeter, and it has been turned over, his filing said.
The election workers attorneys said Giuliani s claim is belied by his own Bankruptcy Schedule, which listed the photo as an asset, and the fact that his former lawyer told the judge the Jackson picture was being kept in a storage facility.
On the witness stand, he said he might have had a Jackson photo in the past, but no longer did. I m not hiding any Yankee memorabilia, he said, adding, I assure you.
As for the Manhattan co-op, Giuliani s attorney acknowledged in a Dec. 24court filingthat Giuliani has not delivered the shares evidencing Defendant s interest in his New York Apartment or the related proprietary lease but states that he did not possess them, the workers lawyers said.
The attorneys said that s contrary to whatGiuliani said three days laterat a deposition, where he confirmed that he has a box in Florida with sensitive and important papers that includes the proprietary lease and probably the co-op shares although he hasn t looked in the box in probably six months confirming both that, in his mind, he has withheld documents he was required to deliver and did not even attempt to collect them to be turned over.
The contempt proceeding is one of two Giulianiis facingrelating to Freeman and Moss.
He has another next week in federal court in Washington, D.C., where U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell will hear arguments that heshould be sanctionedfor continuing to defame Freeman and Moss on his streaming show, despite a court-ordered agreement that he wouldn t do so. They re seeking an unspecified amount in financial penalties at the Jan. 10 hearing.
Giuliani maintains that his comments on his show weren t defamatory and that it is my First Amendment right to talk about the case and my defense.
Howell is the judge whofound Giuliani liablefor defaming Freeman and Moss in 2023 after he repeatedly snubbed court orders to turn over required evidence to the pair, who had sued him over his claims about them amid his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results on Trump s behalf.
Theysaid the false accusations forced them out of their jobs and led to a torrent of racist death threats.
A jury later awarded them$148 million in damages, which the judge reduced to $146 million. Giuliani is appealing the verdict.
Giuliani has been strippedof his law license inNew Yorkand Washington, D.C., and he also facescriminal chargesin two states relating to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. He has pleaded not guilty in both.
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!