Rudy Giuliani, in contempt hearing over $148 million judgment, insists he is not hiding assets

NEW YORK — Rudy Giuliani appeared to favorably impress a judge with three hours of testimony Friday at a contempt hearing, as he insisted he was not hiding assets from lawyers trying to recover a $148 million judgment for two Georgia election officials.

Judge Lewis J. Liman seemed less inclined to find the former mayor in contempt for failing to return certain assets, including a valuable Joe DiMaggio signed jersey that appeared to have gone missing after Giuliani said he last saw it time around September 11 in his Manhattan apartment. .

The judge said Giuliani could finish his testimony Monday by appearing remotely from his Florida residence to explain why certain assets and related documents have been difficult to locate and confiscate.

When asked by a lawyer for the election workers whether the plaintiffs were more interested in recovering assets than holding Giuliani in contempt, attorney Meryl Conant Governski quickly agreed, saying contempt was not “our main objective”.

Governski, more matter-of-fact than confrontational, asked Giuliani how overwhelmed he felt by the court orders directed at him in multiple cases at once across the country.

She sometimes let the judge intervene with a harsh statement, as when he flatly told Giuliani, “You’re violating a court order at least as it relates to this,” referring to the DiMaggio jersey.

Giuliani has repeatedly said he is not deliberately trying to withhold assets. He presented himself as forgetful, sometimes disorganized and having delegated to others some of the tasks concerning his property and the legal file surrounding them.

He complained that the two-week deadline he was given to respond to some requests “was very short,” compared to the time he was given to provide information in 15 to 20 other court cases in which he is involved. implied.

He said he returned all his valuable watches, except for a 120-year-old gold watch his grandfather gave him.

“I was holding him so he wouldn’t get lost,” he said. “I felt like it might get lost if it was turned over.”

When the judge asked him if he understood that the watch had to be returned, he replied that he was “not trying to hide it from anyone” and that he would give it up “if you can assure me that you will put it on in a safe.” place.”

Giuliani said the New York Yankees had been very good to him and at one point he had as many as 100 Yankees items, but he gave away almost everything, including signed photos of Reggie Jackson and Joe DiMaggio together and another by Yogi Berra and Babe Ruth. .

“I don’t know what I have and what I don’t have,” he said, claiming to have lost some assets in his last divorce six years ago.

Election workers’ lawyers say Giuliani demonstrated a “consistent pattern of willful defiance” of Liman’s October order to forfeit his assets after he was found liable in 2023 for defaming their clients by falsely accusing them of tampering with ballots in the 2020 presidential election.

They said in court papers this week that he returned a Mercedes-Benz and his New York apartment, but not the documents needed to monetize the assets. And they said he didn’t give up watches and sports memorabilia, including the DiMaggio jersey, and not “a single dollar of his non-exempt cash accounts.”

Liman said in an order last week that Giuliani’s lawyer should be prepared to explain why he should not be prosecuted for contempt of sanctions that could make it less likely that he will maintain his Florida domicile. A trial over the disposition of the Palm Beach condominium and World Series rings is scheduled for mid-January.

Giuliani says the Palm Beach property is now his personal residence and should be immune from judgment.

His lawyers predict he will ultimately win custody of the items on appeal.

• Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.