It’s
hard
to
tell
if
Rudy
Giuliani
is
playing
dumb,
or
if
he’s
lost
his
everloving
mind.
How
else
to
explain
the
guy
who
used
to
run
the
Southern
District
of
New
York
telling
a
federal
judge
that
he
didn’t
turn
over
his
emails
in
discovery
because
he
didn’t
consider
them
“communications”?
Giuliani
hoped
to
fend
off
sanctions
and
a
contempt
finding
in
the
$148
million
collection
action
filed
by
Ruby
Freeman
and
Shaye
Moss,
the
Atlanta
poll
workers
he
defamed.
He
failed
at
both.
Last
week
his
lawyer
Joe
Cammarata,
Staten
Island
divorce
lawyer
to
the
stars,
tried
to
convince
Judge
Lewis
Liman
to
let
Rudy
appear
remotely
due
to
“medical
issues
with
his
left
knee
and
breathing
problems
due
to
lung
issues
discovered
last
year
attributable
to
Defendant
Rudolph
W.
Giuliani
being
at
the
World
Trade
Center
site
on
September
11,
2001.”
This
request
went
over
about
as
well
as
his
November
petition
to
postpone
the
January
16
trial
so
Rudy
could
spend
that
week
in
DC
attending
inauguration
parties.
Which
is
to
say
that
the
judge
ordered
him
to
get
his
ass
into
court
last
Friday
and
explain
himself,
although
he
was
allowed
to
attend
Monday’s
hearing
remotely.
Giuliani’s
task
was
to
persuade
the
court
that
he
really
did
comply
with
his
discovery
obligations,
as
well
as
the
turnover
order
obliging
him
to
disgorge
his
worldly
possessions
to
Freeman
and
Moss.
The
problem
is
that
…
he
didn’t.
With
respect
to
discovery,
he
turned
over
a
handful
of
emails,
while
conceding
that
he
refused
to
let
his
prior
counsel
look
at
his
phone.
He
failed
to
object
to
interrogatories
and
instead
simply
refused
to
answer.
And
he
said
he
had
no
record
of
his
calendar
—
despite
the
issue
for
trial
being
his
claim
that
he
lives
in
Florida
and
is
entitled
to
claim
the
homestead
exception
for
his
Palm
Beach
condo.
As
for
the
turnover
order,
Giuliani
admitted
that
he’d
failed
to
clear
the
title
for
the
New
York
co-op
or
his
Mercedes,
purporting
to
be
flummoxed
by
the
Florida
DMV.
His
come-and-take-it
stance
on
his
bank
accounts
went
over
like
a
lead
balloon.
And
he
waved
one
of
the
watches
he’d
been
ordered
to
hand
over
at
the
camera,
claiming
that
he
didn’t
know
how
to
get
it
to
the
plaintiffs
because
he
didn’t
want
to
put
it
in
the
mail.
From
the
bench,
Judge
Liman
granted
the
plaintiffs’
motion
for
contempt
of
the
turnover
order,
but
said
he
needed
time
to
craft
an
appropriate
sanction.
As
for
discovery,
he
ruled
that
Rudy
was
totally
out
of
compliance
and
granted
the
request
for
an
adverse
inference
as
to
two
unanswered
interrogatories.
Interrogatory
No.
4:
Identify
any
financial,
medical,
or
legal
professional
or
firm
whom
you
have
consulted
during
the
period
of
January
1,
2020,
through
the
present.Interrogatory
No.
8:
Identify
all
accounts,
messaging
accounts,
and
phone
numbers
that
You
have
used
during
the
period
January
1,
2023,
through
the
present.
Giuliani
will
now
be
barred
from
pointing
to
any
communications
or
financial,
medical,
or
legal
appointments
to
bolster
his
claim
that
he
actually
lives
in
Florida.
And
while
that’s
not
a
default
judgment
on
the
homestead
issue,
it
will
be
very
hard
for
Giuliani
to
point
to
anything
other
than
his
[cough]
indifferently
credible
testimony,
since
he’s
offered
up
zero
documents
and
his
dimwit
henchmen,
whom
he
planned
to
call
as
witnesses,
also
failed
to
comply
with
discovery.
It’s
not
clear
what
will
happen
if
Rudy
loses
the
case
next
week
and
has
to
turn
over
the
Florida
condo.
His
prior
counsel,
who
withdrew
in
November
because
their
client
refused
to
hand
over
his
phone
so
they
could
search
it
for
responsive
emails,
tried
to
build
in
a
backdoor.
They
argued
in
the
alternative
that,
if
the
Florida
claim
was
rejected,
Rudy
should
be
able
to
shield
his
condo
in
Manhattan
—or
whatever
portion
of
it
New
York
law
permits.
But
having
testified
that
he
affirmatively does
not
live
there,
and
having
handed
the
place
over
to
Freeman
and
Moss,
that
ship
seems
to
have
already
sailed.
Well
…
that’s
a
shame.
Freeman
v.
Giuliani [Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.