A federal judge in New York City ruled that Rudy Giuliani was found to be in contempt of court for not adequately responding to requests for information while he was turning over assets to pay off a $148 million defamation judgment to two Georgia election workers.
Judge Lewis J. Liman made this decision after Giuliani testified at a contempt hearing for a second day. This hearing was called because the lawyers for the election workers claimed that the former mayor of New York City had not properly followed through with requests for producing evidence over the recent months.
Giuliani had initially testified for roughly three hours in Liman’s Manhattan courtroom on Friday. However, the judge allowed him to continue testifying remotely from his residence in Palm Beach, Florida on Monday to complete his testimony.
At the start of the hearing Monday, Giuliani had an American flag backdrop, which he said he uses for a program he conducts over the internet, but the judge told him to change it to a plain background.
Giuliani conceded during Monday’s testimony that he sometimes did not turn over everything requested because he believed the requests were overly broad or inappropriate or even a “trap” set by lawyers for the plaintiffs.
He also said he sometimes had trouble turning over information regarding his assets because of numerous criminal and civil court cases requiring him to produce factual information.
Giuliani, 80, said the demands to turn over materials made it “impossible to function in an official way” about 30% to 40% of the time.
The election workers’ lawyers say Giuliani has displayed a “consistent pattern of willful defiance” of Liman’s October order to give up assets after he was found liable in 2023 for defaming their clients by falsely accusing them of tampering with ballots during the 2020 presidential election.
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.”
Giuliani said Monday that he was investigating what happened to the DiMaggio jersey and that he currently doesn’t know where it is or who has it.
Aaron Nathan, a lawyer for the election workers, asked the judge to make inferences about what Giuliani had not turned over – such as the list of his doctors over the last four years – that would make it more likely the court would conclude that the Palm Beach property was not Giuliani’s primary residence and thus is not protected from seizure.
Joseph Cammarata, Giuliani’s attorney, said reaching such a conclusion would be like a civil “death penalty” and would cause Giuliani to lose the Florida property even before a trial in mid-January, when the judge is supposed to hear testimony and view evidence before deciding the disposition of the condominium and World Series rings.
Giuliani has insisted that the Palm Beach property is his personal residence now and should be shielded from the judgment.
His lawyers have predicted that he will eventually win custody of the items on appeal.
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