FAFO Also Applies To Lawyers

The judge finds Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for failing to turn over assets to the election workers he defamed.

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— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) January 6, 2025

His excuse was, he didn’t like the court’s rulings. 

"Judge Lewis J. Liman ruled after hearing Giuliani testify for a second day at a contempt hearing called after lawyers for the election workers said the former New York City mayor had failed to properly comply with evidence production requests over the last few months," The Washington Post reported. The report continued, "Giuliani conceded during Monday’s testimony that he sometimes did not turn over everything requested because he believed the requests were overly broad or inappropriate or even a 'trap' set by lawyers for the plaintiffs."

Need I say that determination is up to the court, not the parties? The judge had to.

According to MSNBC's Adam Klasfeld, who is live tweeting the case, "Liman quotes then-10th Circuit Judge Gorsuch's comments against Giuliani: 'Discovery is not supposed to be a shell game, where the hidden ball is moved round and round and only revealed after so many false guesses are made and so much money is squandered.'

I came up against parties like this, usually deadbeat dads trying to avoid child support. And it’s going to cost Giuliani:

"Apparently Judge Liman has imposed the proverbial 'death penalty' sanctions against Giuliani, drawing an adverse inference on the production of discovery in connection with the homestead exemption that is the major issue for trial on Jan 16th that will foreclose Rudy from contesting it."

Let me translate that for you. 

Rudy has two residences, one of which he’s been ordered to surrender for liquidation (he’s refused to provide the papers for that; it’s part of the contempt hearing). He claims the $3.5 million condo in Florida is his residence. Under Florida law that makes it exempt from collection, no matter what its value. But Rudy delayed providing evidence to establish his claim; and now it’s too late. That’s the “adverse inference.” It’s the legal equivalent of FAFO. Rudy fucked around. Now he’s gonna find out.

And yes, this effort is costing the plaintiffs. They can recover their attorneys fees for all of this. But $148 million covers a lot of attorneys fees, with a whole lot left over.  On that subject, Giuliani’s lawyer has thoughts:

"Let’s be clear. This case was brought by Hunter Biden’s former law partner Michael Gottleib — a current partner at Willkie, Farr & Gallagher — who claimed he was taking on this case out of the goodness of his heart. Why is Willkie, Farr & Gallagher pouring so many resources, and using so many lawyers on this case to try and destroy Mayor Rudy Giuliani? It appears that they are a part of this ongoing politically motivated vendetta against Mayor Giuliani," said Goodman.

Or there’s $148 million to be collected, and my guess is they get some percentage of that in the end.

He continued: "Willkie, Farr & Gallagher might be happy to fight to take away Mayor Giuliani’s most cherished personal belongings including his signed baseball jersey of his childhood hero and his grandfather's pocket watch, but they can never take away his extraordinary record of public service, where he lifted more people out of poverty than any modern mayor, took down the Mafia, cleaned up Wall Street, saved New York City and comforted the nation following September 11th," Goodman concluded.

And then Giuliani slandered those women.  Actions have consequences.  That’s the whole basis of tort law. Goodman and his client should know that.

With accumulating fees and post-judgment interest piling on…Rudy is a prize dumbass.