BENCHSLAPstick
The post Rudy Giuliani And His Lawyer Continue Their Courthouse Vaudeville Act appeared first on Above the Law.
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Rudy Giuliani’s bada-bing lawyer Joe Cammarata continues to do amazing work. The divorce lawyer to the stars (of Staten Island) is representing America’s decrepit Mayor in the New York phase of the findout being delivered by Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the Atlanta poll workers he defamed.
On Thursday, he’s scheduled to go to trial before Judge Lewis Liman on the issue of the Florida homestead exception, which would allow him to shelter his $3 million Palm Beach condo from being sold to satisfy the $148 million judgment. There’s also a secondary issue of whether he really gave his World Series rings to his son Andrew, so perhaps the former gubernatorial candidate will provide some levity at the trial when his father takes the stand.
Over the summer, Rudy told a bankruptcy court that he lived in New York, but before he fell ass backward out of Chapter 11 — restarting the clock on collections — he registered himself as a Florida resident. And in December, in direct contravention of Judge Liman’s order that he not encumber the property, he registered the condo as his homestead with the county clerk, meaning that it will require litigation in state court to clear the title.
Last night Judge Liman ordered sanctions for Rudy’s total refusal to comply with discovery. After failing to turn over more than a handful of documents, and a month after the deadline to disclose his witnesses, “Defendant added five new persons as individuals likely to have discoverable information he might use to support his defense in this action.” All five were his own employees, and he later added a sixth, Monsignor Alan Placa, who went to work for Rudy in 2002 after being barred from the ministry for… the usual. Two of the witnesses failed to testify, and two of the three who showed up to be deposed agreed that they had, indeed, received the subpoenas asking for responsive documents, but simply failed to look for or produce them.
The only witness who even claimed to have complied was Rudy’s [cough] podcast co-host Maria Ryan, who turned over exactly one email, and insisted that it was her habit to immediately delete all correspondence pertaining to “the Mayor,” and that his calendar was maintained via a system of “sticky notes” that were also — if you can even believe it — immediately discarded.
Judge Liman was mad impressed. He excluded every witness but Ryan and Rudy himself, rejecting Cammarata’s suggestion that the proper remedy was to hold said witnesses in contempt and seek to enforce compliance.
“As Defendant well knows, it is his own discovery violations that have prevented that option from becoming viable,” the judge scoffed. “There is no time for the Court to initiate contempt proceedings against [Rudy’s body man Ted] Goodman before the scheduled trial.”
And, noting that “Defendant does not address Plaintiffs’ argument that he should be precluded from relying on documents that he did not produce in discovery,” he granted that motion as well.
Realizing that his client was effectively precluded from defending himself by introducing evidence he failed to produce during discovery, Cammarata leapt into action… sort of.
At 10pm, he filed a “Notice of Interlocutory Appeal” apprising the Second Circuit that:
The Court, Judge Lewis J. Liman excluded two witnesses from being able to testify at trial on January 16, 2025, to wit: MONSIGNOR ALAN PLACA, and THEODORE GOODMAN who should not have been excluded from testifying. The Order stated no legal legitimate basis for excluding MONSIGNOR ALAN PLACA or THEODORE GOODMAN from testifying. The Order prejudices the Defendant, is improper and a wrongful prejudicial decision of the Court. The Court improperly ruled that granting a continuance of the trial would be not practicable without any lawful basis for such decision. The Court granted much more lengthy discovery schedules to other cases, but this case, against Rudolph W. Giuliani who challenged the 2020 election is being treated differently to cause prejudice to the Defendant. When Defendant requested a continuance to have the trial after the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States, the Court denied that, although the court set a very agressive [sic] schedule from Initial Conference to trial. The Court’s prejudicial actions is to deny Defendant a fair trial while there is no prejudice to Plaintiffs.
So far, the Second Circuit has failed to respond. Perhaps this is because, unlike in New York state court, you can’t take an immediate interlocutory appeal of a pretrial ruling in federal court.
The fun continued this morning at a pre-trial conference, where Judge Liman denied Cammarata’s motion for reconsideration.
As documented by reporter Matthew Lee, Cammarata demanded that the court admit Placa’s testimony because the retired cleric “answers to a higher authority.”
But all is not lost. After a conveniently timed social media post from his favorite pro bono client, the Rudy Giuliani Freedom Fund raised $167,000. The GiveSendGo promises that “ALL FUNDS GO TO LEGAL DEFENSE.” Which is good news for Cammarata, since Rudy’s prior lawyers are suing him for unpaid bills.
And Lemon, it’s only Wednesday. OH, SHIT, DO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME IT’S TUESDAY? Well, time flies when you’re getting held in contempt of two separate courts inside ten days.
Freeman v. Giuliani [New York Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
