Giuliani won't stop talking to the press, even as defamation case forces him to turn over assets

The former mayor was due in court to explain why he blew a deadline to pay for defamation judgment

By Griffin Eckstein

News Fellow

Published November 7, 2024 7:00PM (EST)

Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump, departs the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Courthouse on December 11, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump, departs the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Courthouse on December 11, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Former New York City Mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was in court again on Thursday, where a judge ordered him to turn over a prized Mercedes and a watch given to him by his grandfather. 

Giuliani is in the process of paying for a $148 million judgment after he was found to have defamed former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shayne Moss. Judge Lewis J. Liman ordered Giuliani to turn over assets after Giuliani blew an October 29 deadline, calling the former mayor's excuses for failing to turn them over "farcical."

Before the hearing, Giuliani said he was a victim of "political persecution."

“Every bit of property that they want is available if they are entitled to it,” he told reporters. “Now, the law says they’re not entitled to a lot of them. For example, they want my grandfather’s watch, which is 150 years old. That’s a bit of an heirloom. Usually, you don’t get those unless you’re involved in a political persecution. In fact, having me here today is like a political persecution.”
 

Giuliani wasn't done. He tried to connect the case to Hunter Biden later in the day. Given that the entire episode stemmed from Giuliani speaking carelessly, some legal experts found his press conference to be a head-scratcher.

"When we look at the very basis for this defamation case, I think it's not smart for him to just be going off the cuff and spouting off whatever he wants in public like this," criminal defense attorney Eric Faddis told NewsNation. "He's bound to state something inartfully or perhaps misrepresent something."


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