Rudy Giuliani Held In Contempt In $148M GA Defamation Case

MANHATTAN, NY — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was held in contempt Monday after being accused of failing to divulge information to two Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation lawsuit against him.

Federal Judge Lewis Liman of New York in late October 2024 ordered Giuliani, 80, to turn over his interest in his property to mother and daughter Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, Patch previously reported.

Giuliani reportedly accused the workers of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. They sued Giuliani twice as they maintained he harassed them and spread "false speech."

On Monday, Liman ruled after hearing Giuliani testify for a second day at a contempt hearing called after lawyers for the election workers said the former mayor had failed to properly comply with evidence production requests over the last few months.

Once an attorney for President-Elect Donald Trump, Giuliani was previously ordered to turn over his Manhattan luxury penthouse and other valuable possessions to Freeman and Moss, along with: several watches, a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by the Hollywood star Lauren Bacall, his television, furniture items and jewelry, according to reports.

Liman on Monday accused Giuliani of trying to stall until he goes to trial as he fights to maintain ownership of his $3.5 million Palm Beach, Florida condominium, CNN reported. The federal judge accused Giuliani of keeping information from Moss and Freeman during trial preparations, CNN reported.

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Giuliani is also being accused of neglecting to turn over assets to the election workers, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

“He has testified that he did not respond because he suspected the motives of plaintiff’s counsel," Liman said, per CNN. "That is not an excuse for violating the court’s orders. More important, as the Court informed the defendant, if there was reason to believe the plaintiff’s counsel misused discovery or would misuse discovery, he could raise that with the court. It was not an excuse to take the law into his own hands."

Giuliani's testimony in the two-day contempt hearing included acknowledgments that he withheld "certain materials" due to over-broad requests and stress from continuing criminal and civil cases, Fox 5 reported.

In November 2024, Giuliani said the seizure of his finances left him without being able to afford food.

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 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.

His lawyers have predicted that he will eventually win custody of the items on appeal.

His legal woes include an indictment consisting of several racketeering and election interference charges in Fulton County, alongside Trump and 17 others. They are all accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

He has yet to go to trial in the election subversion case.

This story includes reporting by the Associated Press.