NEW YORK (AP) — After being found in contempt twice in one week, Rudy Giuliani faces another potentially treacherous week during a trial to determine whether his Florida condominium and three World Series rings should be transferred to two Georgia election workers who won. a $148 million defamation award against him.
The former mayor of New York City was criticized by a Washington judge on Friday for repeating false claims that workers corruptly counted votes in the 2020 presidential election. On Monday, a New York judge found him in contempt for had failed to provide sufficient evidence of his assets.
On Thursday, 80-year-old Giuliani will be tried in New York on whether he can keep his condominium in Palm Beach, Florida, which he says he set up as his permanent residence a year ago, and whether he will have to win three World Series rings. that he has submitted. says he gave it to his son in 2018.
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Judge Lewis J. Liman, who will preside over the juryless trial in Manhattan federal court, is the same lawyer who found Giuliani in contempt last Monday.
With his contempt order, Liman made statements that landed Giuliani back in the upcoming trial. He said Giuliani cannot testify about text messages or emails showing he moved his residence to Florida because he failed to turn over text messages or emails as part of the exchange of evidence between lawyers prior to trial.
Liman said he may also make negative inferences about “gaps” in the evidence resulting from Giuliani's inability to turn over material, including rejecting claims that Giuliani changed his professional services, such as doctors and lawyers in persons who worked in Florida after January 1. , 2024.
Giuliani has admitted that he sometimes did not hand over everything requested in the case because he believed what was requested was too broad, inappropriate or even a “trap” set by attorneys for the plaintiffs.
A request for comment was sent Saturday to a spokesperson for President-elect Donald Trump's former private attorney.
At a hearing in November, Giuliani said he was “not impoverished” but that his assets were tied up due to multiple legal proceedings he faced in several states.
Liman also issued an order several days ago asking all parties to detail whether the World Series rings Giuliani purchased from the New York Yankees should be kept in court until it could be decided who would get them.
Lawyers for Andrew Giuliani said the rings are safely located in the bedroom closet of his New York City home in a doorman's building.
The judge raised the possibility that the court would keep the rings after Giuliani testified last Monday that he does not know what happened to a valuable autographed Joe DiMaggio baseball jersey after he last saw it in his Manhattan apartment about four months ago had seen.
After the testimony, attorneys for the election workers filed written arguments refuting claims that Giuliani gave the rings to his son in 2018. For example, they noted that Giuliani's 2023 bankruptcy filing included the rings among his assets.
The Florida real estate and World Series rings are the top assets still in dispute from a portfolio of Giuliani assets estimated at more than $10 million. The Palm Beach condominium is believed to be worth more than $3 million.
He has already given up assets, including a New York City apartment worth about $5 million, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall and numerous luxury watches and other belongings.
Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, won the defamation judgment against Giuliani after saying his lies about the theft of the 2020 presidential election led to death threats that left them fearing for their lives.
