Giuliani changes lawyers in election workers’ receivership trial before bristling at judge

MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal judge in New York on Tuesday allowed Rudy Giuliani to swap out his attorneys but denied his call to delay an upcoming bench trial over the former mayor’s objections to surrendering property to the election workers he was found guilty of defaming.

Former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, who sued Giuliani for defamation after he falsely accused them of mishandling ballots during the 2020 election, brought a civil action in Manhattan federal court to force him to turn over assets to satisfy their $148 million civil judgment.

Attorneys for Freeman and Moss told U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman that Giuliani hasn’t met court deadlines to surrender his personal property — including a Florida condo and several Yankees World Series rings — describing his efforts to stall as “lackadaisical at best, intentionally obstructive at worst.”

Their lawyer said at a status conference Tuesday morning that Giuliani has purportedly surrendered his 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL500 but didn’t include the title for the convertible once owned by Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall.

“There’s been delay, extensions, and ultimately no compliance,” said Aaron Nathan, from Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York.

Nathan added that Donald Trump’s former attorney also hasn’t responded to requests about a CitiBank account, sports memorabilia including a Joe DiMaggio jersey, and various pieces of art identified for receivership.

Liman chided Giuliani and his current attorney, Joseph Cammarata, for not giving the receivers the necessary paperwork to take ownership of the car.

“The car and the keys without the title is really meaningless,” Liman said.

“Your client is a competent person — he was the United States attorney for this district,” the judge said, noting that if the title was missing, Giuliani could request a new one from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Giuliani, wearing a dark blue suit with stars-and-stripes tie and an American flag lapel pin, interrupted the judge.

“Your implication that I have not been diligent about it is totally incorrect,” he said loudly from the defense table.

“I’m not impoverished — everything I have is tied up,” he said. “I don’t have a car. I don’t have a credit card. … I can’t get to bank accounts that truly would be mine because they’ve put stop orders on, for example, my Social Security account.”

Before serving as New York City’s mayor from 1994 to 2001, Giuliani served by the appointment of President Ronald Reagan as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, from June 3, 1983, to Jan. 1, 1989.

The January bench trial will address Giuliani’s continued possession of his Palm Beach, Florida, condo, which he has claimed is exempt because it is his primary residence, and his World Series rings, which he says he gave his son, Andrew, as a gift.

Giuliani asked Liman to delay the bench trial until late January or early February so he can attend President-elect Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration events, during the week the trial is scheduled.

“My client wants to exercise his political right to be there,” Cammarata said.

Liman offered to hold the trial earlier in January but denied Giuliani’s request to push the trial back later than Jan. 16.

Earlier in the conference, Liman formally granted a motion from Giuliani’s former counsel, Ken Caruso and David Labkowski, to withdraw from the case on consent.

“We took on the representation in New York to help Rudy,” the lawyers wrote in a joint statement before the status conference. “We have a difference of opinion as to how best to do that. Therefore, we have withdrawn in favor of Mr. Cammarata, who appears ready, willing and able to assist Rudy. We wish them every success.”

Caruso and Labkowski are still representing Giuliani in his appeal in Washington seeking a reversal of the underlying $148 million judgment.

“I’m sorry it came to this,” Caruso remarked in court after Liman granted the request to withdraw from the New York case.

Cammarata, the Staten Island divorce lawyer now handling case, criticized Caruso and Labkowski for leaving Giuliani as be battles civil sanctions and potential incarceration.

The two lawyers filed the paperwork to withdraw a week after a hearing in Manhattan federal court where Liman noted that a debtor’s efforts to comply with court orders would be relevant in potential contempt proceedings.

Last week, Freeman and Moss asked U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, a Barack Obama appointee, to hold Giuliani in contempt in the D.C. case for violating a permanent injunction against repeating false claims about the election workers, specifically on recent episodes of his nightly livestreams.

“These statements repeat the exact same lies for which Giuliani has already been held liable, and which he agreed to be bound by court order to stop repeating,” Freeman and Moss argue in the motion. “The court should hold Giuliani in civil contempt and — following a hearing, if necessary — impose sanctions calculated to ensure Giuliani’s compliance with the consent injunction.”

Outside of the courthouse, Giuliani derided the Trump-appointed judge as a “serious, left-wing Democrat” for consistently ruling against him. He said he was a victim of political persecution by the Biden administration as retribution for divulging information about Hunter Biden’s laptop to the New York Post in October 2020.

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