Rudy Giuliani Stiffs His Lawyer Out Of $1.4M: NYC Lawsuit

NEW YORK CITY — Rudy Giuliani has a pricey new legal problem: his attorney says the former mayor stiffed him out of nearly $1.4 million.

Giuliani's longtime lawyer Robert Costello filed a lawsuit in Manhattan court Monday that "simply seeks payment" for a dizzying amount of recent legal work on election interference cases for the man once hailed as "America's Mayor."

Costello and his firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP were owed $1.57 million by Giuliani for this work between November 2019 and this July, but he only paid $214,000, the lawsuit states.

The suit was met with disappointment from Giuliani, who lamented to Business Insider how his long friendship with Costello had reached this point.

"I can't express how personally hurt I am by what Bob Costello has done," Giuliani said in a statement, according to Insider. "It's a real shame when lawyers do things like this, and all I will say is that their bill is way in excess to anything approaching legitimate fees."

The lawsuit states Giuliani received invoices for all the legal work and "never raised any objection" over their accuracy.

And based on accusations in the lawsuit, it appears that friendship alone could not cover the work Costello and the firm did for Giuliani from November 2019 to July this year.

The work included representing Giuliani during Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation, a U.S. House probe into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a Georgia criminal case over efforts to overturn its 2020 election results, more than 10 civil lawsuits and disciplinary hearings over his law license, the complaint states.

Most of Giuiliani's problems stem from his fierce advocacy for former President Donald Trump. He faces a torrent of legal fees, fines, sanctions and more related to his falsehood-strewn work trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump, for his part, recently hosted a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser for Giuliani's legal bills. It's unclear why Trump, who is Forbes' 1217th richest person in the world, hasn't ponied up cash for Giuliani, at least publicly.