(Bloomberg Law) -- Rudolph Giuliani was held in contempt for violating legal discovery requirements related to his Palm Beach, Florida condominium, potentially putting him one step closer to losing his second multi-million dollar residence to satisfy a $148 million defamation judgment.
The former New York City mayor’s failure to cough up information that might undercut his claim for a homestead exemption in Florida will hobble parts of his argument that he established a primary residence in the state.
Judge Lewis J. Liman of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York said Monday that he will decide the full extent of Giuliani’s punishment at a later time for failing to comply with court orders and “trying to run the clock” on his disclosure duties.
The Palm Beach condo, previously valued around $3.5 million, has become a central part of legal wrangling to satisfy Giuliani’s 2023 court loss for defaming Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea’ Moss by falsely accusing the pair of attempting to rig 2020 election ballots in favor of Joe Biden.
Having already been forced to turn over his Manhattan penthouse apartment, cash accounts, collection of valuable watches, Yankees memorabilia, and other assets, Giuliani is currently fighting to keep his only other residence through a homestead exemption. His position has been complicated by the fact that he claimed several times last year during his personal bankruptcy proceedings that his primary residence was in New York and he only spent a fraction of his time in Palm Beach.
Liman, a Donald Trump appointee, in recent months compelled Giuliani to provide fulsome answers and responsive documents to Moss and Freeman’s discovery requests, but Giuliani missed mandated deadlines and ultimately produced only sparse bits of sought after information.
Giuliani “willfully failed” to meet discovery demands placed upon him, the judge said. It’s reasonable to conclude he did so because “the information would be injurious to him in the homestead action,” Liman added.
Although the judge held off determining a final penalty for violating court orders, he barred Giuliani from arguing any further that he changed his doctors, lawyers and financial advisers as part of his alleged move from New York to Florida. He also prohibited Giuliani from bringing up emails or other communications to argue that he changed his personal service providers.
Liman has scheduled a Jan. 16 trial to decide if Giuliani can keep the property.
Giuliani attorney Joe Cammarata argued Monday that his client fully or substantially complied with discovery requirements. He added that a severe “adverse inference” ruling on the discovery issues would be a “death penalty” for his client’s defense.
“Plaintiffs are trying to sidestep the trial,” Cammarata said. “This case should be decided on the merits.”
It wasn’t immediately clear the degree to which Giuliani’s defense will be hampered by the immediate ruling.
Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman said in a statement Monday that the case against Giuliani is “politically motivated.”
“It’s tragic to watch as our justice system has been turned into a total mockery, where we have charades instead of actual hearings and trials,” he said.
Giuliani’s efforts on behalf of Trump to cast doubt on the 2020 election have left the one-time federal prosecutor beset by legal proceedings and financially ruined. Since losing the defamation suit, Giuliani has been in and out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, lost his ability to practice law, faced criminal indictments, and remained a defendant in multiple high-stakes civil suits.
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 et al. v. Giuliani, S.D.N.Y., No. 24-06563, hearing 1/6/25.
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
(Updates with additional hearing details and statement from Giuliani’s spokesman.)
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