After several missed deadlines and extensions, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani could be found in contempt of court on Friday for failing to turn over $11 million of assets to two election workers he defamed following the 2020 presidential election.
If he is held in contempt, he could face harsh penalties, including jail time.
Mr Giuliani, 80, appeared in federal court in Lower Manhattan to justify a stalled decision to hand over some of his most prized assets, including a penthouse apartment in Manhattan, a collection of Yankees memorabilia, luxury watches and a vintage Mercedes- Benz convertible included. ,
Mr. Giuliani’s attendance was not confirmed. A day earlier, Mr Giuliani’s lawyer had asked if his client could appear virtually, because he has medical problems related to his left knee, as well as breathing problems, for which he suffered a stroke after the September 11 attacks. The time spent in the center is attributed.
But the judge, Lewis J. Liman, who testified with Mr. Giuliani about the case in November, said he would not accept Mr. Giuliani’s testimony unless he appeared in person. So the former mayor, dressed in a dark blue suit and glasses, walked into the 15th-floor courtroom, limping and with a dry cough.
Mr. Giuliani is expected to present his case sometime after lunch.
The transfer was originally scheduled to take place in October, as a down payment on a $148 million judgment he was ordered to pay to two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shay Moss. Mr. Giuliani had claimed, without evidence, that the women had dated Donald J. Trump more than four years ago. Helped Trump win the presidential election.
But successive deadlines have passed and the women’s lawyers said they have received only a fraction of the property.
Mr. Giuliani has argued that he has largely complied with the handover request and has said that some of the items sought by the plaintiffs are not in his possession.
“The court must see that I gave everything I could,” Mr. Giuliani wrote in a personal petition to Judge Liman on Christmas Eve.
But lawyers for the women said that despite repeated warnings from the court, Mr Giuliani was ignoring orders.
The plaintiff has yet to receive legal possession of his 10-room apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, once listed for more than $6 million, since his divorce from his ex-wife Judith Giuliani. The action has not been updated. For court filings. The title to Mr. Giuliani’s 1980 Mercedes convertible, which he said was once owned by Lauren Bacall, has not yet been transferred.
And the whereabouts of a signed and framed Joe DiMaggio Yankees jersey that once hung over Mr. Giuliani’s fireplace is unknown, Mr. Giuliani has said. The plaintiffs’ attorneys said the items were removed some time before they reached their apartment.
“It is difficult to reconcile Mr. Giuliani’s position with reality,” Aaron E. Nathan, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, wrote in a Dec. 30 letter to the court.
The hearing marks a low point in Mr Giuliani’s multiple legal battles stemming from his tenure as Mr Trump’s personal lawyer. In November, Mr Giuliani’s lawyers withdrew from the handover case, citing an undisclosed professional ethics reason.
In a recently unsealed letter explaining his departure, one of the lawyers, Kenneth Caruso, said that Mr. Giuliani was not cooperating with the discovery process related to the condominium he owned in Palm Beach, Florida, and that his electronic devices were blocking access.
Later this month, Mr. Giuliani also faces the possibility of contempt charges in a court in Washington, D.C., where he is accused of continuing to publicly make false claims about two Georgia election workers. Is charged.