Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is asking the court to delay his trial with the pair of election workers he defamed so he can attend Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Giuliani’s trial is scheduled for January 16, 2025, four days before President-elect Trump’s inauguration. The cash-strapped former mayor has now asked the court to adjourn the trial - which is to enforce the $150 million bankruptcy court judgment against Giuliani - until on or after January 22, so that he can attend the inauguration events.
“There would be no harm to the plaintiffs by a delay of a few days in the trial schedule, and I am sure that the Court would have other dates available other than January 16, 17, or 20, 2025 for this trial,” when the inauguration events are set to take place, argued Joseph Cammarata, an attorney for Giuliani, in a Friday letter to the judge.
Cammarata is now representing Giuliani after his previous lawyer suddenly quit last week. On Monday, the judge ordered that the matter be discussed at a hearing scheduled for November 26.
Giuliani served as Trump’s personal lawyer during his first term in office and pushed election fraud claims after Trump’s 2020 defeat. The pair have been charged in Georgia’s sweeping criminal case related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 results; they have both pleaded not guilty.
Last December, a jury found Giuliani owes Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss nearly $150 million after he defamed them by spreading false claims that they manipulated the 2020 election results in favor of Joe Biden. The ruling led the disbarred attorney to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which has since been dismissed.
The mother-daughter duo are now allowed to seize his belongings to collect what they are owed.
Although Giuliani confirmed in the Friday filing that he had turned over his 1980 Mercedes-Benz, his watch collection, a diamond ring and some cash, Cammarata said in the Friday filing. He then objected to his Joe DiMaggio shirt, household furniture and other personal belongings being turned over to Freeman and Moss, saying this action violates either New York or Florida state laws — the sites of his two homes.
Similarly, he is arguing that his Benz needs to be appraised. The turnover of the vehicle is “wholly improper,” Cammarata wrote, arguing that it is exempt if its value is less than $5,500. If the appraiser determines that the car is worth more than that dollar amount, the vehicle must be auctioned. “Just ordering the vehicle to be turned over to the Plaintiffs without any appraisal has taken away Defendant’s statutory and constitutional rights,” the lawyer argued.
Giuliani, who rolled up in the Benz to a polling site on Election Day despite admitting in bankruptcy court that he does not have a driver’s license, previously valued his vehicle at $25,000, but The Independent’s review of his assets found that the classic car being worth nearly $30,000.
Freeman and Moss have been “overly aggressive in trying to cease [sic] all of the Defendant’s assets” and they “have to be restrained from disregarding” Giuliani’s statutory rights, Cammarata added.
The judge ordered on Monday that any requests for additional relief must be made in a formal motion.
Monday’s order comes days after two of Giuliani’s associates — his business partner Maria Ryan and his spokesperson Ted Goodman — were ordered to respond to subpoenas requesting information on their financial ties to the former mayor. Giuliani disclosed earlier this month that he had two financial involvements with Ryan and Goodman: a storage facility and a newly formed company.
The election workers accused Giuliani of moving “a substantial amount of his property” from his Manhattan penthouse to a Long Island storage facility, which is under Ryan’s name, before the judge ordered him to turn over his valuables, a lawyer for Freeman and Moss wrote
Giuliani also revealed that he has 88 percent ownership of Standard USA, while Ryan has 10 percent ownership and Goodman has 2 percent. The company’s “purpose and activities remain a mystery,” their lawyer wrote.
