Rudy Giuliani, the ex-Mayor of New York, addresses journalists on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, as he exits his residence in New York City. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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A federal judge in New York City is poised to unseal a court document from the attorneys who represented Rudy Giuliani in his ongoing litigation with two Georgia election workers he defamed that resulted in a judgment of $148 million being levied against him.
The defamed election workers — Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss — have been in ongoing and often contentious litigation with Giuliani to collect on that judgment.
Giuliani’s lead attorney, Kenneth Caruso, and his co-counsel, David Labkowski, last month withdrew as Giuliani’s counsel, apparently without informing the former New York City mayor of their intention to nix him as a client.
In their motion to withdraw, Caruso and Labkowski cited a professional conduct rule permitting the termination of representation under specific circumstances, including a “fundamental disagreement” with a client, a client insisting on presenting a claim that “cannot be supported by good faith argument,” and when the representation of a client becomes “unreasonably difficult.”
Caruso and Labkowski initially sought to file the motion under seal. U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman rejected the request but allowed a heavily redacted version of the document to be posted to the public docket.
Giuliani — who is being threatened with contempt for allegedly failing to respond to the plaintiff’s discovery requests and not turning over personal items owed to the plaintiffs in accordance with court orders — on Thursday filed a declaration that effectively blamed Caruso and Labkowski for the shortcomings.
“I have not intentionally or willfully disobeyed any of this Court’s orders or Plaintiffs’ discovery demands. If any documents were not produced by me, it was because I did not possess them, and not for any nefarious reason to disobey any court order or discovery demand,” Giuliani wrote. “I relied upon my prior counsels, Kenneth Caruso, Esq. and David Labkowski, Esq. to timely respond to the Plaintiffs’ discovery demands with my input as they needed, and to avoid disobeying any of this Court’s orders or discovery demands.”
Giuliani claimed that once he retained his new attorney, Joseph Cammarata, he was ultimately able to provide “all discovery” to the plaintiffs.
In response to Giuliani’s filing, Liman on Friday ordered the parties to inform the court whether they objected to unsealing the declarations from Caruso and Labkowski regarding why they withdrew from representing Giuliani.
“The parties shall inform the Court by no later than December 21, 2024, at 5 p.m. whether, in light of the declaration of Defendant […] there remains any basis to maintain under seal declarations of Defendant’s prior counsel filed in support of their motions to withdraw,” Liman wrote in a docket order.
Liman cited legal precedent which states that “each passing day where access to court-filed documents is improperly denied ‘may constitute a separate and cognizable infringement of the First Amendment.””
Giuliani has had a rocky relationship with Liman, even going so far as to interrupt the judge during an in-person hearing last month to exclaim, “You are against me!” to Liman.
Following that hearing, Giuliani spoke to reporters outside the courthouse, where he railed against Liman, accusing the jurist of being an “activist Democrat,” Politico reported. Liman was appointed to the court by Trump in 2019.
“Have you figured out what side he’s on? Are you too dumb to see what side he’s on?” Giuliani reportedly asked. “I’ve been a lawyer for 55 years. I can figure out what side he’s on.”
“He doesn’t give a damn about the truth. He just gives a damn about being popular,” adding, “This is lawfare with capital letters.”
