Giuliani sued by his former lawyers claiming $1.4 million in unpaid legal fees

Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was sued Monday by his former lawyers in a lawsuit that claims he owes $1.36 million in unpaid legal fees.

Robert Costello, a partner at the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, sued Giuliani in New York Supreme Court. He and his law firm are seeking payment for legal services Giuliani has received since 2019.

According to the lawsuit, Costello’s firm began providing legal services to Giuliani around November 2019, and continued until July of this year. The lawsuit says the legal services provided by the firm included early representation in what became election interference cases in Georgia and Washington, DC.

The law firm alleges that it directly billed Giuliani for fees and expenses totaling more than $1.5 million and that Giuliani paid only $214,000.

In response to the lawsuit, Giuliani said the amount requested was excessive.

“I cannot express how personally hurt I am by what Bob Costello did,” Giuliani said in a statement. “It’s a shame when lawyers do things like that, and all I’ll say is that their bill far exceeds anything approaching a legitimate fee.”

Earlier this month, NBC News reported that former President Donald Trump hosted a fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to help fund Giuliani’s legal defense, which is part of 18 Trump co-defendants indicted in Georgia for alleged attempted overthrow. the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state. All 19 defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

In the federal election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, the person named as co-conspirator No. 1 in the indictment against Trump appears to be Giuliani, based on prior testimony and other documents. The indictment filed Aug. 1 cites Giuliani’s efforts to overturn election results using false claims of fraud in Arizona and Georgia.

Costello said at the time that co-conspirator No. 1 appeared to be his client, but added that “every fact that Mayor Giuliani has about this case establishes President Trump’s good faith basis for the actions he ‘he has businesses’.

The lawsuit by Costello and his firm adds to Giuliani’s legal problems.

Earlier this year, he was sued in a massive $10 million lawsuit filed by Noelle Dunphy, a woman whose allegations included harassing Giuliani and discussing the sale of presidential pardons after his hiring in 2019. Giuliani denied these allegations.

In July, a D.C. Bar Association disciplinary board recommended that Giuliani be stripped of his law license over alleged “malicious and baseless allegations” he made to undermine the 2020 election. Giuliani’s spokesperson at the time said the move was “part of a broader effort to deprive President Trump of effective counsel by persecuting Mayor Giuliani.”

Last month, a federal judge found Giuliani liable for defaming two election workers by boosting Trump’s stolen election claims.