Rudy Giuliani Held in Contempt of Court Over Defamation Case Compliance

On Monday, a New York federal judge declared Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for failing to adequately respond to requests for information linked to a $148 million defamation judgment awarded to two Georgia election workers. Judge Lewis J. Liman made this ruling following a second day of testimony from Giuliani in a contempt hearing initiated after the plaintiffs' attorneys claimed he had not sufficiently met evidence production requests in recent months.

Giuliani, who had been questioned in person for approximately three hours last Friday, continued his testimony remotely from his Florida home on Monday. At the opening of the hearing, he appeared against a backdrop of an American flag, which he stated was for an online program he hosts, but the judge instructed him to switch to a neutral background.

During his testimony, Giuliani acknowledged that he occasionally failed to provide all the requested information, asserting that he saw some requests as overly broad, inappropriate, or even a potential entrapment by the plaintiffs' lawyers. He also mentioned that due to multiple ongoing criminal and civil cases requiring him to produce factual documentation, he sometimes struggled to comply with demands regarding his assets. Giuliani claimed that these continuous demands made it "impossible to function in an official way" about 30% to 40% of the time.