Judge finds Rudy Giuliani in contempt for skirting discovery in case over $148 million defamation judgment

MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal judge on Monday sanctioned Rudy Giuliani over his failure to comply with discovery in a case brought by two Georgia 2020 election workers who accuse the former New York City mayor of trying to get out of paying them a $148 million defamation award.

Ruling from the bench on Monday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman, a Donald Trump appointee, slammed Giuliani’s “blithe disregard” of court orders and “preposterous” behavior throughout the discovery process.

Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Moss initially sued Giuliani in 2021 after he spread baseless claims that they’d helped to steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election from then-candidate Donald Trump. They won the hefty defamation judgment at trial, but claim Giuliani has been slow-rolling paying out what they’re owed.

Liman’s focus primarily involves whether Giuliani will have to surrender his Palm Beach, Florida, condo to Freeman and Moss alongside his other assets. The judge found Friday that Giuliani has been withholding pertinent discovery information.

“The defendant has been attempting to run the clock,” Liman said, theorizing that Giuliani is dragging his feet to turn over discovery because it “would be injurious to him” in this case.

Liman ruled the requested information “easily could have been provided on a timely basis,” but Giuliani made no substantial effort to comply with the court’s orders.

The fiery ruling came after a two-day hearing that saw Giuliani take the witness stand, where he swore that he did “the best he could” to meet discovery deadlines amid numerous other legal battles.

Giuliani showed up to Manhattan’s federal courthouse on Friday for the first day of the hearing. On Monday, Liman allowed him to appear virtually from his South Florida home, where he testified in front of a large monitor that displayed a waving American flag — until the judge demanded that he take it down and put up a plain background.

“I never purposely tried to hide or leave out a document,” Giuliani said, swearing that “I did the best I could, given the reservations I had,” about the plaintiffs’ discovery requests.

Those reservations, Liman ruled, were “not an excuse for violating the court’s orders.”

“The court puts very little weight on that self-serving testimony which was conclusory,” the judge said of Giuliani’s words.

Liman added that Giuliani’s history didn’t help him. He said that he took judicial notice of Giuliani’s status as a “disbarred attorney” who has “committed discovery violations in other cases.”

Giuliani attempted to use those other cases to justify his actions in this one, lamenting the amount of documents he’s had to produce across several other jurisdictions.

“I can’t say that every day is hell,” Giuliani said. “But I could say that 30 or 40% make it impossible to function in what you would like to call an efficient way.”

Freeman and Moss also accuse Giuliani of hiding some of the assets they are owed, including pieces of the former mayor’s watch collection and a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey, among other sports memorabilia.

On Monday, Giuliani claimed he’s made significant progress in locating some of those assets.

“I got my watch,” Giuliani said. “Here it is so you know I have it in my possession.”

“That’s not necessary,” Liman said, as Giuliani dangled a gold timepiece in front of his webcam.

In a statement to Courthouse News, Giuliani’s spokesperson Ted Goodman panned Liman’s ruling — and the case as a whole — as a “politically motivated vendetta” against the ex-mayor.

“It’s tragic to watch as our justice system has been turned into a total mockery, where we have charades instead of actual hearings and trials,” Goodman said. “Unfortunately, it’s getting worse because so few members of the legal community are willing to speak up or do anything about the weaponization of our justice system, and that needs to change.”

The case will head to trial Jan. 16, during which Liman will determine whether or not Giuliani’s Palm Beach condo is his permanent home and thus exempt from the judgment. As punishment for the contempt, Liman said he would preclude Giuliani from offering certain overdue evidence in his bid to keep the unit.

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