Closing arguments were delivered on Aug. 8 in the trial that will determine if independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear on the 2024 New York general election ballot.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba is expected to issue a ruling soon on whether Kennedy falsely claimed he has a New York residence in his nominating petitions.
Kennedy appeared in an Albany, New York, courtroom this week as the defendant in a lawsuit filed by four voters and backed by Clear Choice PAC, an organization led by supporters of President Joe Biden.
The legal action contends that Kennedy’s nominating petition says he lives in New York, but he has resided in Los Angeles since 2014 after marrying “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines.
If the judge rules against Kennedy, the petitions will be declared invalid, and he won’t qualify to appear on the New York general election ballot, according to a New York Board of Elections spokesperson.
A decision against Kennedy could also lead to lawsuits in other states where Kennedy’s campaign used the same address to collect signatures.
“This case is an assault on New York voters who signed in record numbers to place me on their ballot.” Kennedy said in a statement released by his campaign on Aug. 8.
Kennedy said he rents a room in a friend’s home in Katonah, a community located around 40 miles north of midtown Manhattan. He added that he has only slept in the room once because of his campaign travel schedule.
Katonah is his “home address,” Kennedy said, adding that he moved to California in 2014 to be with his wife. He said that he always planned to return to the state.
“I’m a New Yorker,” Kennedy reiterated during testimony.
Attorney John Quinn, who is representing the plaintiffs, said in his closing arguments that evidence clearly shows Kennedy resides in Los Angeles and that the candidate’s claims that he lives in New York are “a sham.”
After leaving the courthouse, Kennedy told reporters that he has lived in New York since 1964 when his father, Robert F. Kennedy, was a U.S. senator there. He added that people who signed his petitions deserve a chance to cast their votes for him.
“Those Americans want to see me on the ballot. They want to have a choice,” Kennedy said.
William F. Savino, Kennedy’s attorney, asked the candidate why he didn’t rent or buy a home in New York in the last 10 years.
Owning a home in the state is expensive and time-consuming, he answered.
“It snows a lot here. The pipes break, the driveway needs to be plowed, and all these other burdens that are associated with home ownership. It was much better to live with a friend,” he added.
Kennedy noted that his father was also accused of not living in New York when he ran for the Senate seat and won. Months before that election, his father rented a home on Long Island, Kennedy said.
On Aug. 7, Mr. Kennedy testified that he did not have a written lease at the Katonah home where he said he lives in a spare bedroom.
Court papers indicate that Barbara Moss has owned the Katonah property since 1991 and lives there with her husband, Timothy Haydock, a friend of Kennedy.
Moss testified that she received a lump sum payment of $6,000—one year’s rent—a day after a late May article questioning his New York residency appeared in the New York Post.
Kennedy said that he hadn’t paid the rent until late May because of an oversight.
“As long as Bobby needs the room, it will continue,” Moss said. “That was our understanding.”
On Aug. 6, in a Facebook video, Kennedy said, “I moved out to California in 2014 to support Cheryl, who could not move at that time. One of us had to. We both agreed at that point that when she was done acting there, that she’d come back to New York and we’d move back to New York and maybe she would do Broadway or whatever.
“But I always kept the New York residence because I love New York,” he said. “It’s part of who I am. It’s part of my identity, and it was important to me to keep it.”
Regarding the Katonah home, Savino told the court that Kennedy “receives mail there. His driver’s license and automobile are registered there. His voting registration, fishing, and falconry licenses are from New York. His law office is in New York. He pays taxes to New York [state].
“New York has been his residence continuously since 1964, and Kennedy has deep ties to it. He even keeps his beloved falcons in New York state. He has never claimed any other state as a residency. He intends to move back to New York as soon as his wife retires from acting.”
Kennedy’s campaign reported that on May 28, the candidate submitted more than 145,000 signatures, which is thought to be more than any presidential candidate in New York history.
In April 2023, Kennedy announced his candidacy to challenge Biden for the 2024 Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
After encountering multiple roadblocks from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and claiming that the organization was “rigging the primary” to favor Biden and prevent other candidates from competing, Kennedy chose to run as an independent in October 2023.
Since then, he has focused on gaining ballot access in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Earlier this year, the DNC announced the creation of a team to counter third-party and independent presidential candidates. It hired Lis Smith, a veteran Democrat strategist who managed Pete Buttigieg’s unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, to spearhead an aggressive communication plan to combat Kennedy, independent Cornel West, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
“If, as the DNC insiders claim, I have no chance of winning, then why are they funding smear campaigns against me?” Kennedy said in a post on X earlier this week. “Clearly, I’m more relevant than they want the American public to believe.”
“I’ve been a New Yorker for over fifty years,” he wrote in another X post. “But we all know this case isn’t about whether I’m a New Yorker. It’s about whether you get more choice on your ballot, or less.”
According to Kennedy’s campaign, he has collected more than 1 million signatures to date, which is thought to be more than any presidential candidate in U.S. history. Kennedy has so far gathered the necessary signatures to appear on the ballot in 45 states, the campaign said on Aug. 6.
