Profile
Sections
Local
tv
Featured
More From NBC
Follow NBC News
news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
The attorneys who’ve been defending Rudy Giuliani in a case seeking to force him to turn over his assets to two former election workers he defamed are asking a judge permission to drop him as a client.
The exact reason for the request was redacted in a court filing late Wednesday, but the filing suggested Giuliani, who represented Donald Trump in his challenges to the 2020 election, was being an “unreasonably difficult” client.
In the filing, Giuliani attorney Ken Caruso and co-counsel David Labkowski cited three provisions of the code of professional conduct allowing them to withdraw — when “the client insists upon taking action with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement”; “the client insists upon presenting a claim or defense that is not warranted under existing law and cannot be supported by good faith argument”; or “the client fails to cooperate in the representation or otherwise renders the representation unreasonably difficult for the lawyer.”
Ted Goodman, a representative for Giuliani, did not comment on Caruso’s claims but suggested his client had been blindsided by the motion, which was filed two days before the deadline for Giuliani to turn over property and financial information to the two former Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
“Mayor Giuliani has not been informed by Mr. Caruso of this action. Surely Mr. Caruso would talk to the mayor, or at the very least inform him of such a decision,” Goodman said.
Caruso did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His filing said he’d served Giuliani a copy of his motion via email.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman said in an order Thursday he’ll hear arguments on the request to withdraw on Nov. 26. He also said the Friday deadline for Giuliani to turn over his property and financial information is still in place.
In court last week, Aaron Nathan, an attorney for Freeman and Moss, told Liman that Giuliani had been “playing games” while delaying the turnover of valuable property he’d been ordered to surrender to begin making good on the $146 million judgment he owes the mother and daughter.
Giuliani repeatedly and falsely accused the pair of having engaged in election fraud.
Giuliani had initially been ordered to transfer personal property, “including cash accounts, jewelry and valuables” to Freeman and Moss by Oct. 29. The valuables he was supposed to turn over included his luxury watch collection, a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey, and a Mercedes that once belonged to Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall.
In court last week, Giuliani said he was unsure where his valuables were, a claim the judge called “farcical.”
Nathan told the judge he’d discovered that numerous items had been moved from Giuliani’s apartment in recent weeks, despite the turnover order.
Giuliani told reporters outside court that the lawyers had “lied” about items being moved.
In a court filing Wednesday, however, Nathan said a storage facility where Giuliani was keeping some of his belongings said he moved “6 containers” there from his New York apartment in early October, which is “consistent with the reports provided by the co-op’s management company representative that Mr. Giuliani moved the majority of his belongings out of the New York Apartment around that time.”
Nathan’s filing said that photos from the storage company show that “at least some of the voluminous property stored at the CTS Facility may be receivership property — including furniture, artwork, and sports memorabilia.”
His filing also suggested Caruso might not have been aware the items had been moved.
“At a minimum, these documents confirm that Mr. Giuliani and his associates did move a substantial amount of his property out of the New York Apartment while the motion for turnover was pending, without informing Plaintiffs and possibly without informing his own counsel,” the filing said.
Nathan said the facility also said Giuliani owes it about $100,000 in moving and storage fees.
Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.
© 2024 NBCUniversal Media, LLC
