Mystery as Rudy Giuliani fails to show for his contempt of court trial
Rudy Giuliani failed to show up for a trial to decide whether he can keep some of his valuables after being found guilty of defamation in a $148 million verdict.
The trial of the disgraced former NYC mayor was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday but was postponed until 1 p.m. after Giuliani was a no-show, as reported by Press city center.
Giuliani was already almost two hours late for court when he posted a video of his dog at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on X.
He wrote, “Vinny loves hanging out at Mar-a-Lago, but he’s willing to spend a lot more time in Washington DC over the next four years supporting his favorite president: Donald J. Trump!”
The 80-year-old Giuliani had to testify before the same judge who held him in contempt last week for failing to turn over information about some of his assets to the female lawyers. As punishment, Judge Lewis J. Liman banned Giuliani from presenting any evidence.
Rudy Giuliani failed to show up for a trial to decide whether he can keep some of his valuables after being found guilty of defamation in a $148 million verdict
An empty chair can be seen where Rudy Giuliani was expected to sit in court in Manhattan on Thursday
Giuliani, who served for a time as personal attorney to newly elected President Donald Trump during his first term, was also found in contempt in Washington DC last week. The judge there ruled that Giuliani continued to defame election workers by repeating false claims that she corruptly counted votes in the 2020 presidential election.
The final proceedings will not be to re-examine whether Giuliani defamed the women or the amount of the judgment against him, both issues that have been decided, but to determine whether he can keep certain valuable assets rather than transfer them wear. .
Among them is his condominium in Palm Beach, Florida, which he can hold on to if he can prove it is his homestead. The former mayor says he took up residence there in January 2024, but attorneys for the election workers say he continued to operate as if his New York apartment was his residence until it was surrendered in the fall as part of the verdict.
Also at stake are three World Series rings that Giuliani said he gave to his son Andrew in 2018.
At a recent hearing, Giuliani said he is “not impoverished” but does not have access to most of his remaining assets.
“Everything I have is tied up. I don’t have a car. I don’t have a credit card. I don’t have any cash. “I can’t get to bank accounts that are supposed to really be mine because they’ve placed freeze orders on things like my social security account, which they’re not entitled to,” he said.
Lawyers for the election workers say Giuliani listed the Manhattan apartment as his residence and the rings as his property when he filed for bankruptcy in December 2023, a filing that was dismissed six months later by a judge who accused him of “uncooperative conduct ‘. -trade and a lack of transparency.
Giuliani said during a deposition last month that George Steinbrenner, the late owner of the New York Yankees, gave him the rings in 2002 even though he insisted on paying for them and told Steinbrenner, “These are for Andrew.”
He testified that he immediately gave one to Andrew and kept three others for safekeeping. He estimated their total value at $27,000.
Attorneys for the election workers say Giuliani, a lifelong Yankees fan who sometimes wore the rings, never reported them as a gift to his son in tax records, even though he was scrupulous about reporting gifts when he filed taxes. And they say the son never bought insurance for the rings or reported them on his own tax returns.
Giuliani’s total assets are not expected to be much more than $10 million. The Palm Beach condominium is believed to be worth more than $3 million.
He has already surrendered a New York apartment worth about $5 million, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, numerous luxury watches and other belongings.
The election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, won the defamation judgment after saying Giiuliani’s lies about the theft of the 2020 presidential election led to death threats that left them fearing for their lives.