A tragedy has befallen Rudy Giuliani. You see, Trump’s former attorney has fallen on hard times after losing a $148 million defamation lawsuit and he’s, like, totally buggin’. Guiliani, who is absolutely known for his calm and collected manner, lost his cool during a Manhattan court hearing when the judge questioned why it was taking Giuliani so long to transfer his assets to the court after losing a defamation lawsuit against two Georgia election workers.
Reuters reports District Judge Lewis J. Liman was addressing the former New York City mayor’s new attorney, Joseph Cammarata, about why his client had yet to complete the necessary paperwork to relinquish the rights to his car, a 1980s Mercedes-Benz once belonging to Lauren Bacall. Liman pointed out that Giuliani, with his decades of experience in New York law, should be competent enough to secure a title to the car. Giuliani evidently didn’t like this line of questioning and committed a court no-no.
“The implication I’ve been not diligent about it is totally not correct,” Giuliani spoke to the judge directly. “I’m not impoverished,” he continued, contradicting the claims he made on X earlier this month. “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 pay my bills.” Perhaps Giuliani is reading from a different dictionary, but does that not meet the Merriam-Webster definition of “impoverished?”
Liman warned Giuliani against any more outbursts, saying he should let his lawyer do the talking unless he was testifying under oath. “There should be no higher priority for your client right now than complying with the court’s orders. Period,” Liman told Cammarata.
Like many a Trump ally, Giuliani cried “election fraud” after the results of the 2020 election but unlike most, he decided to put his money where his mouth is and filed multiple lawsuits including one alleging the Pennsylvania election boards incorrectly counted mail-in ballots to benefit Biden. Unfortunately for Trump’s former lawyer, he learned that sowing leads to reaping, and he was permanently disbarred for making “utterly false” claims in his Pennsylvania court case.
He owes his current financial woes to the defamation case he lost after he accused two former Georgia election workers of taking part in a voter fraud conspiracy against Trump. He was ordered to pay the two $148 million in assets by the court, though Liman lowered it to $146 million. Giuliani tried to declare bankruptcy, an action suggesting impoverishment, and has now turned to crowdfunding his legal fees (as of writing, he’s somehow raised $140,000 of the $250,000 goal).
Crowdfunding will not be enough to meet the demands of the defamation case. Giuliani has been told to surrender assets, including his car, his luxury watch collection, and his Manhattan apartment to the election workers’ lawyers but has yet to fully comply. Liman, a Trump-appointed judge Giuliani describes as “about as left-wing as you can get, has set a trial for Jan. 16 according to NBC News. The trial will determine whether Giuliani must surrender assets like his World Series rings or Florida home to the workers he defamed.
Giuliani, still somehow loyal to Trump, had his lawyer ask if the trial could be rescheduled so he could attend the president-elect’s inauguration. “The defendant’s social calendar does not constitute due cause,” Liman answered. Giuliani’s legal troubles are far from over but will they be enough to make him learn his lesson? Ugh, as if.