(Bloomberg Law) -- Rudolph Giuliani says he isn’t hiding a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey, which once hung above a fireplace in his former Manhattan apartment, despite allegations that he’s ignoring court orders to surrender personal assets.
The former New York City mayor, who has been ordered to turn over his personal property and valuables to satisfy a $148 million defamation judgment, said in federal court on Friday that he’s produced all the sports memorabilia that was in his possession. The DiMaggio jersey may have been moved from his penthouse apartment and into storage along with other personal belongings, but it and a signed photo of Yankees great Reggie Jackson aren’t being concealed from plaintiffs Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea’ Moss, Giuliani said.
“I’m not hiding any Yankee memorabilia,” he said during testimony in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. “You have every bit of sports memorabilia that I possess.”
The former Trump attorney is mired in asset turnover proceedings in New York after being found in 2023 of falsely accusing Freeman and Moss of trying to rig election ballots in favor of Joe Biden when they were serving as Georgia poll workers during the 2020 election. The pair have asked to have Giuliani held in contempt for flouting court orders.
Giuliani took the stand Friday to defend against accusations that he has failed to produce responsive discovery material and turn over his possessions, including the Manhattan co-op, a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL 500, cash accounts, jewelry, and other valuables.
Court filings displayed during the hearing showed that Giuliani has relinquished 18 of 26 luxury watches he claimed to own.
Giuliani said Tuesday that he still possesses a more than 120-year-old pocket watch that once belonged to his grandfather because it “means something” to him and he was worried about it getting lost.
Judge Lewis Liman said that was an admission of violating his court order.
With respect to the DiMaggio jersey, Giuliani said he last saw it in his New York apartment in September and couldn’t say why representatives for the plaintiffs couldn’t locate it when they walked through the property in late October.
The former mayor got more animated when confronted with deposition testimony from Monsignor Alan Placa, one of his close friends who he has known for decades. The Catholic priest, who told lawyers that Giuliani showed him a DiMaggio jersey in Florida sometime during the last two years, “is wrong about this,” said Giuliani.
“I never brought it to Palm Beach,” he insisted.
The hearing is set to resume on Monday.
Giuliani is represented by Joseph Cammarata of Cammarata & DeMeyer PC. The poll workers are represented by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, DuBose Miller LLC, and United to Protect Democracy.
The case is Freeman v. Giuliani, S.D.N.Y., No. 24-06563, hearing 1/3/25.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Wolf in New York at awolf@bloomberglaw.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Maria Chutchian at mchutchian@bloombergindustry.com
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