NEW YORK — In an angry outburst in a New York courtroom, Rudy Giuliani accused a judge Tuesday of making wrong assumptions about him as he tries to comply with an order requiring him to turn over most of his assets to two election poll workers who won a libel case against him.
U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman responded by saying he’s not going to let the former New York City mayor and onetime presidential candidate blurt things out anymore in court unless he’s a sworn witness.
The interruption to an otherwise routine pretrial hearing in Manhattan came as the judge questioned Giuliani’s lawyer about why Giuliani has not yet provided the title to a car he has relinquished in his effort to satisfy a $148 million defamation judgment won by two former Georgia election workers.
“Your client was the U.S. attorney for this district,” the judge said, referring to Giuliani’s years in the 1980s as the head of the federal prosecutor’s office in the Southern District of New York, as he suggested it was hard to believe that Giuliani was incapable of getting a duplicate title to the car.
Giuliani leaned forward and began speaking into a microphone, telling the judge he had applied for a duplicate copy of the car’s title but that it had not yet arrived.
“The implication I’ve been not diligent about it is totally incorrect,” Giuliani said in a scolding tone. “The implication you make is against me and every implication against me is wrong.”
Giuliani went on: “I’m not impoverished. Everything I have is tied up. I don’t have a car. I don’t have a credit card. I don’t have cash. I can’t get to bank accounts that truly would be mine because they have put … stop orders on, for example, my Social Security account, which they have no right to do.”
Liman responded by warning defense lawyers that the next time Giuliani interrupts a hearing, “he’s not going to be permitted to speak and the court will take action.”
The judge said Giuliani could either choose to represent himself or let lawyers do so, but “you can’t have hybrid representation.”
If Giuliani wants to speak in court again, he can be put on the witness stand and be sworn as a witness, Liman added.
The exchange came at a hearing in which the judge refused to delay a Jan. 16 trial over the disposition of Giuliani’s Florida residence and World Series rings.
Those are two sets of assets that Giuliani is trying to shield from confiscation as part of Liman’s order to turn over many prized possessions to the poll workers.
Earlier in the proceeding, defense attorney Joseph M. Cammarata asked Liman to delay the trial, which will be heard without a jury, for a month because of Giuliani’s “involvement” in inauguration planning for President-elect Donald Trump.
“My client regularly consults and deals directly with President-elect Trump on issues that are taking place as the incoming administration is afoot as well as (the) inauguration,” Cammarata said. “My client wants to exercise his political right to be there.”
The judge turned down the request, saying Giuliani’s “social calendar” was not a reason to postpone the trial.
Giuliani, who once served as Trump’s personal attorney, was found liable last year for defaming two Georgia poll workers by falsely accusing them of tampering with ballots during the 2020 presidential election. The women said they faced death threats after Giuliani falsely claimed they sneaked in ballots in suitcases, counted ballots multiple times and tampered with voting machines.