Rudy Giuliani was held in contempt of court on Friday for failing to turn over personal items to two former Georgia election workers he defamed while spreading President-elect Donald Trump’s false claims about a stolen election in 2020.
The ruling comes before a trial in New York, set to begin Jan. 16, in which the judge will determine what is to become of Giuliani’s Palm Beach, Florida, condo; two World Series rings; and other items he argues are personal gifts that should not be surrendered to the workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, as part of the $148 million he owes them.
The decision was handed down by U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman and comes after the former New York City mayor repeatedly flouted directions from the court to surrender records and personal items to Freeman and Moss.
“The court takes judicial notice that the defendant was until recently a barred attorney, and has committed discovery violations in the past. He has lost on both procedural and substantive questions. It was not even close. He violated the court’s order,” Liman said Monday, according to Inner City Press.
Giuliani owes the women $148 million for the damage and havoc he wreaked on their lives by falsely and repeatedly claiming they committed fraud while working the polls at State Farm Arena in Fulton County, Georgia, in 2020. Freeman and Moss were forced to quit their jobs and had to go into hiding. They were terrorized for weeks and endured a torrent of threats and racist attacks. Even after the defamation trial, the women say Giuliani has continued to smear them.
The contempt hearing started on Friday and continued into Monday. Giuliani testified in person Friday but was allowed to appear remotely for the second part of the proceedings.
As HuffPost reported in November, the former election workers had already procured some of what is owed to them including a vintage Mercedes convertible, a dozen watches and a diamond ring but they were missing paperwork connected to his Mercedes convertible and his property in New York City.
In court in Manhattan on Friday, Giuliani said he finally located the lease for his Upper East Side apartment as well as the title to his Mercedes.
According to NBC, the former Trump attorney said he tried to comply with orders but struggled to do so because of a rigorous and demanding legal schedule. In addition to the defamation case, Giuliani has been criminally charged in Arizona and Georgia for his role in Trump’s alleged fake elector scam.
“Some days it is completely impossible because there are conflicting demands for material and appearances on the same day,” Giuliani said Friday.
Though he vowed he never meant to evade the judge’s orders, he conceded that he didn’t really want to give Freeman or Moss a gold pocket watch he inherited from his grandfather.
Giuliani said he was worried it would get lost.
According to The Independent, that was “the last thing” he wanted.
“I’m not trying to hide it from anyone. I took it upon myself to put it in a safe place. It’s the one thing that means something to me,” he told the judge.
On Monday, when he appeared again, he held up the watch for the judge to see.
“I don’t how to get it to you. I don’t want to mail it,” he said, according to Inner City Press.
The women say Giuliani has also played a game of hide-and-seek with a valuable New York Yankees jersey signed by Joe DiMaggio that once hung over a mantle in his Manhattan apartment.
Freeman and Moss said they were unable to locate it for months and when the women went to assess items at the property this fall, the jersey and several other items, including an array of furniture, wasn’t there. The women told the judge they had previously seen the jersey in photos of Giuliani’s apartment.
Giuliani told Liman it was “possible” the jersey was moved out of the apartment at some point. According to NBC, when Giuliani’s friend Monsignor Alan Placa testified in court last Friday, he said he had seen it framed in Giuliani’s home in Palm Beach at some point in the last two years.
Giuliani said Placa was “confused about what I have and don’t have” when it comes to memorabilia from the Yankees since there is so much of it. (A signed photo of Yankees legend Reggie Jackson is also missing in action, according to Freeman and Moss.)
The former mayor has also pinned his failure to comply on his former lawyer, Kenneth Caruso. Caruso withdrew from Giuliani’s case in November. A month later, unsealed court filings showed Caruso bailed because Giuliani allegedly wouldn’t cooperate with the discovery process and refused to hand over devices sought by the court. Giuliani has denied that is what caused the breakdown.
Attorney Joseph Cammarata began representing Giuliani shortly after Caruso departed. On Monday, Inner City Press reported that Cammarata told Liman his client had “substantially complied” and urged that they had done “our best” to avoid sanctions.
Giuliani’s trial set to begin in about two weeks will attempt to resolve what is to become of his Palm Beach condo. It’s valued at roughly $3 million and the former mayor, according to his lawyers, lived in it at least part time while not living in New York.
Freeman and Moss asked Liman to hold Giuliani in contempt because they say they were unable to gain his cooperation in full and this was among their last remaining checks on him.
Contempt penalties can lead to jail time and fines, but with Giuliani already unwillingly on the hook for $148 million, more financial penalties are unlikely to mean much, attorneys for Freeman and Moss argued.
Both women, according to Politico, did not ask the judge to put Giuliani in jail but rather, to apply whatever sanctions the judge felt were fit. They have suggested, however, that part of the penalty for Giuliani would be an order from the judge declaring that Giuliani never intended to live in the Palm Beach property.
We Need Your Support
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
On Jan. 10, Giuliani is due in court in Washington, D.C., for another contempt hearing.
There he is expected to appear before U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell who will hear arguments over whether the former mayor should be slapped with sanctions because he has continued to defame Freeman and Moss with commentary on his podcast.