Rudy Giuliani didn’t show up to testify at his own trial over a defamation judgement, delaying proceedings until at least Thursday afternoon.
The former New York City mayor and lawyer for Donald Trump had been ordered to pay $148 million for targeting Georgia election workers with false conspiracy accusations — more than Giuliani could afford. The trial set for this morning was meant to determine whether Giuliani would have to give up a Florida condominium and three World Series rings to help satisfy the owed money.
The election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, won the defamation judgment after nothing that Giuliani’s lies about the 2020 presidential election provoked death threats against them.
Despite the verdict, Giuliani has continued to disparage election workers, as well as withhold information on some of his assets, leading the judge overseeing Thursday’s scheduled trial to find him in contempt.
Giuliani could hold on to his $3 million condominium in Palm Beach, Florida if he can prove it is his homestead, or primary residence. The former mayor claims he established residence there in January 2024, but lawyers for the election workers say that he continued to operate as if his $5 million New York City apartment were his primary residence until he was forced to relinquish it, along with other luxury assets, as part of the judgement.
The lawyers also note that Giuliani listed the apartment as his residence and the three World Series rings as his property when he filed for bankruptcy in December 2023. The application was dismissed by a judge who said that he was engaged in “uncooperative conduct,” self-dealing and a lack of transparency.
As for the rings, Giuliani, a lifelong Yankees fan, said that he gave them to his son Andrew in 2018, even though the election workers’ lawyers point out that he never listed them as a gift in his tax records, nor did Andrew report them in his tax records or obtain insurance for the rings that are collectively worth $27,000.
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