Rudy Giuliani (center) arrives at a New York court on November 7, 2024, where a judge ordered him to appear in a defamation case filed by Georgia election workers in New York, USA.
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Lawyers representing Rudy Giuliani litigation Those linked to the massive defamation verdict against him are seeking to have the case dismissed in New York federal court, citing significant differences with former Trump campaign lawyers over how to handle the matter.
A week ago, the judge in the case threatened to hold him in contempt of court if he failed to turn over personal property to satisfy part of a $146 million judgment in favor of two Georgia election workers who were involved in the 2020 election Later, he defamed the current president.
Giuliani’s lawyer Kenneth Caruso Archive Writing late Wednesday, he and co-counsel David Labkowski have three grounds for seeking to have the case dismissed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
These grounds include “the client’s insistence on taking actions that are fundamentally different from the lawyer’s” and “the client’s insistence on advancing claims or defenses that have no basis under existing law.”
The third reason cited in the document is that “the principal failed to cooperate with the agent or otherwise made it difficult for the agent to perform his or her work effectively.”
Four paragraphs of the motion were blacked out in a public copy of the document.
Caruso had earlier asked Judge Lewis Leeman to keep the entire motion confidential, citing the need to avoid disclosing confidential information or information that “would be embarrassing or harmful to the client if disclosed.”
Liman declined to fully seal it but allowed Caruso to submit a public copy that redacted passages containing confidential information related to his legal work for Giuliani, the former New York mayor and top federal prosecutor.
Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman said in a statement to CNBC that “Mr. Caruso has not informed Mayor Giuliani of this action.”
“Mr. Caruso will certainly speak to the mayor or at least inform him of such a decision,” Goodman said.
Giuliani represented Trump after the 2020 election as the then-President sought to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden.
During that time, Giuliani falsely claimed that Ruby Freeman and Vandria Moss had committed ballot fraud at a counting site in Georgia. The mother and daughter later sued Giuliani, alleging defamation.
In August 2023, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., entered a default judgment against Giuliani in the case because Giuliani repeatedly failed to comply with orders requiring him to turn over evidence to female lawyers.
In December, a trial jury awarded Giuliani $146 million in defamation damages to the women.
The woman’s lawyer complained that Giuliani had hindered his efforts to obtain a series of personal items that Giuliani was ordered to hand over to satisfy at least a small part of the sentence.
The items included luxury watches, baseball memorabilia and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz.
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