Rudy Giuliani’s lawyers abruptly drop defamation case

Rudy Giuliani’s lawyers abruptly stopped representing him in his defamation case after lawyers for the women he defamed accused the disgraced former New York mayor of hiding assets he was ordered to to return.

Giuliani’s lead lawyer, Kenneth Caruso, and attorney David Labkowski filed a motion in New York federal court on Wednesday, citing several reasons for their withdrawal, highlighting a “fundamental disagreement” with Donald Trump’s former lawyer .

The attorneys invoked a New York rule that allows attorneys to withdraw when a “client insists on taking an action with which the attorney fundamentally disagrees” or when a client “insists on presenting a claim or defense which is not justified by applicable law and cannot be supported by a good faith argument”, or where “the client fails to cooperate with the representation or makes the representation unreasonably difficult for the lawyer to exercise effectively his work.”

Their notice came just hours after lawyers for the women – two election workers who faced abuse and harassment after Giuliani falsely accused them of manipulating results in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election – said in court that they had received instructions to recover the property.

But those documents contained “concerning facts” that suggest Giuliani moved and hid his assets to avoid or delay the release of his property, while relying on an associate to repay debts on his behalf, the lawyers said.

Last week, District Judge Lewis Liman ordered Giuliani to meet court-ordered deadlines to return a long list of assets or face severe penalties, including contempt of court.

Giuliani then appealed for money, lashing out at the women’s lawyers and saying he couldn’t afford food.

“They seized all my money, which wasn’t much. I need legal representation against these evil people. I can’t buy food,” he said.

After a jury ordered Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss following a defamation case last year, Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a case which has since been classified.

The end of his bankruptcy proceedings reopened a mountain of litigation against him, allowing women to pressure the courts to begin collecting what they are owed.

Judge Liman ordered Giuliani to transfer his $5.6 million Madison Avenue penthouse, cash, 26 watches and a Mercedes Benz allegedly previously owned by Lauren Bacall, among other valuables.

After being ordered to appear in person at a status conference in a federal courtroom in Manhattan last week, Giuliani told reporters outside the building that he had no regret having defamed the two women before quickly correcting himself by saying that he never believed he had ever defamed them.

“Mr. Trump doesn’t need to help me get out of this,” he said as he got into a car. “All Mr. Trump has to do is fix the justice system, and you will find out who the real criminals are.”