Rudy Giuliani (C) arrives at the New York court following a judge’s order compelling his appearance in the defamation case filed by Georgia election workers in New York, United States on November 07, 2024.
Lokman Vural Elibol | Anadolu | Getty Images
A New York federal judge on Thursday threatened to hold former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court if he fails to surrender personal property — including luxury watches, baseball memorabilia, and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz — to satisfy at least some of a $146 million defamation verdict in favor of two Georgia election workers.
Judge Lewis Liman chided Giuliani’s lawyer Kenneth Caruso for suggesting the former New York mayor does not know where some of that property is.
“The notion that your client doesn’t know where his assets are is farcical,” Liman said at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
“All the property must be turned over to the receiver and if not, I will hold him in contempt,” the judge told Caruso, whose client was by turns angry, animated and frustrated during the proceeding.
Liman gave lawyers for the two plaintiffs in the case, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss, until Monday to tell Giuliani’s lawyer where to deliver the items and how to do so.
The women’s attorney, Aaron Nathan, earlier this week in a court filing told Liman that Giuliani had emptied his multi-million-dollar Manhattan apartment — which is also due to be forfeited to the women — of items that were subject to the forfeiture.
Nathan said Giuliani has stonewalled his efforts to learn where the items are.
“The vast majority of physical property, we have no idea where it is,” Nathan said at Thursday’s hearing. “There has been nothing but game playing.”
Giuliani said the items are in his homes in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, and in a storage facility in Ronkonkoma, Long Island, to which he claims he has no access.
Nathan alleged that Giuliani has opened secret bank accounts and created limited liability companies on the heels of the defamation verdict last year.
Before he entered court Thursday, Giuliani fumed over a judge’s order that he show up in person, saying it is “like a political persecution.”
Giuliani was found liable in federal court in Washington, D.C., for defaming the two women by claiming they had committed ballot fraud at a vote-counting site during the 2020 presidential election, when he was representing President-elect Donald Trump. He was ordered to pay them $146 million in the case.
Asked Thursday if Trump has called him since winning the most recent presidential election, Giuliani said, “Yes.”
Asked what Trump had said, Giuliani replied, “I’m not going to tell you.”
Outside of court after the hearing, he said he believes the verdict will be reversed on appeal and that he will get his items back.
He also said he never defamed the women.
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