A federal judge has held former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in contempt for failing to comply with orders in the ongoing defamation battle brought by two Georgia election workers.
Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Liman said Giuliani, a former adviser to then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, had “willfully violated a clear and unambiguous order of this court.”
According to the Associated Press, Liman targeted Giuliani’s refusal to hand over evidence that would help him decide whether Giuliani could keep his Florida condo as his residence.
Giuliani testified on Jan. 6 that he didn’t comply with all of the requests.
Liman’s decision is the latest blow to Giuliani, whom two Georgia election workers sued for defamation following claims that he made about them relating to the 2020 presidential election.
The plaintiffs, Wandrea Moss and Ruby Freeman, ultimately won a nearly $150 million defamation judgment against Giuliani in Washington and have been seeking to satisfy the judgment in Liman’s court.
Liman had set up a receivership, or legal arrangement for managing Giuliani’s property, on Oct. 22, 2024, while ordering Giuliani to hand over many high-dollar items.
These included shares in his Manhattan co-op apartment, furniture and watches, and a Mercedes Benz.
Nathan said several of Giuliani’s witnesses sat for depositions but did not produce materials responsive to the plaintiffs’ requests.
Liman has scheduled a bench trial for Jan. 16 to resolve pending issues. Giuliani’s attorney, Joseph Cammarata, warned that depending on the judge’s decisions on the case, his client could lose his property before the trial even started.
Since leading Trump’s legal efforts in the 2020 presidential election, Giuliani has been the subject of multiple lawsuits and criminal allegations.
In relation to his 2020 election response, he has been disbarred in both New York and the District of Columbia.
Giuliani’s spokesperson Ted Goodman previously criticized the lawsuit.
“This lawsuit has always been designed to censor and bully the mayor and to deter others from exercising their right to speak up and to speak out,” Goodman said. He contended that “the justice system has been weaponized” against Giuliani “and so many others for strictly partisan political purposes.”
