By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani took the witness stand on Friday to try to defend himself against an attempt to arrest him for contempt of court by two Georgia election workers. who falsely accused of trying to help steal the 2020 election. US presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden.
Election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Moss say Giuliani has failed to comply with the U.S. district judge. Machine gun (JO:) Liman's orders to give up his Manhattan apartment, the title to a 1980 Mercedes, and sports memorabilia as payment for a $148 million defamation verdict in his favor.
Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani, Republican President-elect Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, in 2021, accusing him of destroying their reputation. Giuliani made repeated false claims that surveillance video showed the pair hiding and counting suitcases full of illegal ballots at a basketball stadium in Atlanta that was used to process votes during the 2020 election.
Two years later, Giuliani admitted that he had made defamatory statements about them, and a judge ruled that he was liable for defamation as a sanction against him for failing to turn over electronic records to Moss and Freeman.
A Washington, D.C., jury later ordered to pay Freeman and Moss approximately $73 million in compensation and $75 million in punishment.
Lawyers for Freeman and Moss say Giuliani has not given them all the property required of him. At Friday's hearing in federal court in Manhattan, they urged Liman to hold him in contempt and punish him by finding that he failed to treat a Palm Beach, Fla., condominium he owns as his permanent residence, meaning it could be surrendered.
Giuliani, 80, has claimed that his daily life has been disrupted by the two poll workers, making it difficult for him to obtain the necessary documentation, and that he has not “willfully disobeyed” any court order.
He also said he relied on his previous attorneys in the case to comply with Freeman and Moss's requests for information.
Those lawyers, Kenneth Caruso and David Labkowski, withdrew in November, saying it was in part because Giuliani refused to comply with those requests.
'YOU MADE ME LOOK LIKE MY DOG'
A contempt citation in the district where he had been the top federal prosecutor would mark a new fall from grace for Giuliani, once known as “America's Mayor” for his response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Giuliani has been disbarred for making false claims about the 2020 election and has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona for helping Trump's failed attempt to overturn his defeat.
During a break in the hearing, Giuliani asked courtroom artist Jane Rosenberg if she would make him look “nice,” said Rosenberg, who was documenting the hearing for Reuters. He criticized a drawing Rosenberg made of him in a previous proceeding by furrowing his brow.
“You made me look like my dog,” Giuliani said, according to Rosenberg.
Lawyers for the election workers also say Giuliani did not send them documents that would have helped them determine whether he should surrender the Florida condo.
Giuliani's new lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, said Giuliani had “substantially, if not almost entirely, complied” with poll workers' requests, but said he was asked for an “astronomical” amount of information while facing numerous other entanglements. legal.
“Mr. Giuliani is an 80-year-old man who has been hit by a whirlwind of discovery lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions,” Cammarata said.
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