Rudy Giuliani skipped a trial to decide whether he can keep some of his valuables after he was found guilty of defamation in a $148 million judgment.
The disgraced former New York mayor’s trial was scheduled to begin Thursday at 9 a.m., but was postponed until 1 p.m. after Giuliani failed to show, as reported by the Midtown Press.
Giuliani was already almost two hours late to 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 to support his favorite president: Donald J. Trump!”
It is unclear whether Giuliani remains in Florida on Thursday or why he did not show up for the hearing.
Giuliani, 80, had to testify before the same judge who last week declared him in contempt for not having provided information about some of his assets to the lawyers of the benefactors of the sentence. As punishment, Judge Lewis J. Liman prohibited Giuliani from presenting any evidence.
Giuliani, who served for a time as President-elect Donald Trump’s private attorney during his first term, was also found guilty of contempt last week in Washington, DC. The judge found that Giuliani continued to defame Georgia election workers by repeating false claims that they corruptly counted votes in the 2020 presidential race.
Rudy Giuliani skipped a trial to decide whether he can keep some of his valuables after being found guilty of defamation in a $148 million judgment.
An empty seat is seen where Rudy Giuliani was supposed to sit in the Manhattan courtroom on Thursday.
The final procedure will not be to relitigate whether Giuliani defamed the women or the amount of the judgment against him, both issues that have already been decided, but rather to determine whether he will be able to keep certain valuable assets instead of handing them over. .
Among them is your condo in Palm Seashore, Florida, which you can keep if you can prove ownership. The former mayor says he took up residence there in January 2024, but attorneys for poll workers say he continued to operate as if his New York apartment was his residence until he was surrendered in the fall as part of his sentencing.
Also at stake are three World Series rings that Giuliani says 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 cash. “I can’t access bank accounts that would really be mine because they have placed… suspension orders on, for example, my Social Security account, something they have no right to do,” he said.
Lawyers for 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 request that was dismissed six months later by a judge who accused him of “misconduct.” non-cooperative”, self-treatment and 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, although he insisted on paying for them, telling Steinbrenner: “These are for Andrew.”
Lawyers for the poll workers say Giuliani listed the Manhattan apartment as his residence and the rings as his property when he filed for bankruptcy in December 2023.
Freeman and Moss, who are mother and daughter, successfully argued in court that Giuliani’s targeting of them over Trump’s lies about the theft of the 2020 election led to death threats.
He testified that he gave one to Andrew immediately and kept three others for safekeeping. He estimated its total value at $27,000.
Lawyers for the poll workers say Giuliani, a lifelong Yankees fan who sometimes wore the rings, never included them as a gift for his son on tax records, even though he was meticulous in listing the rings. gifts when filing taxes. And they say the son never obtained insurance for the rings or declared them on his own tax records.
Giuliani’s total assets are not expected to exceed $10 million. The Palm Seashore condo is believed to be worth more than $3 million.
He has already handed over a New York apartment worth about $5 million, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, numerous luxury watches and other assets.
Poll 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 made them fear for their lives.
