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Judge Lewis J. Liman seemed less inclined to find the former
mayor in contempt for failing to turn over some assets,
including a valuable signed Joe DiMaggio jersey that appeared to
go missing after Giuliani said he last saw it around Sept. 11 in
his Manhattan apartment.
The judge said Giuliani can finish his testimony Monday by
appearing remotely from his Florida residence as he explains why
some assets and the paperwork related to them have been hard to
locate and forfeit.
When he asked a lawyer for the election workers if the
plaintiffs were more interested in recovering assets than
finding Giuliani in contempt, attorney Meryl Conant Governski
quickly agreed, saying contempt was not “our primary goal.”
Governski, more matter-of-fact than confrontational, elicited
from Giuliani how overwhelmed he felt by court orders coming at
him in multiple cases across the country at once.
She left the judge, at times, to jump in with a stern statement,
like when he told Giuliani flatly: “You're in violation of a
court order at least in regards to that,” referring to the
DiMaggio jersey.
Giuliani said repeatedly that he wasn't purposefully trying to
withhold assets. He portrayed himself as forgetful, disorganized
at times and having delegated to others some of the chores
regarding his assets and the legal case surrounding them.
He complained that the two-week time frame he was given to
respond to some requests “was very short,” compared with how
long he was given to provide information in 15 to 20 other court
cases he's involved in.
He said he has turned over all his valuable watches except for a
120-year-old gold watch that his grandfather gave him.
“I was holding it so it didn't get lost,” he said. “I felt like
it could get lost if it was turned over.”
When the judge asked if he understood that the watch was
required to be turned over, he said he “wasn't trying to hide it
from anyone” and would give it up “if you can assure me you'll
put it in a safe place.”
Giuliani said the New York Yankees had been very good to him and
he at one point had as many as 100 Yankees items, but he gave
most everything away, including signed pictures of Reggie
Jackson and Joe DiMaggio together and another of Yogi Berra and
Babe Ruth.
“I get confused about what I have and don't have,” he said,
claiming he lost some belongings during his most recent divorce
six years ago.
The election workers' lawyers say Giuliani has displayed a
“consistent pattern of willful defiance” of Liman’s October
order to give up assets after he was found liable in 2023 for
defaming their clients by falsely accusing them of tampering
with ballots during the 2020 presidential election.
They said in court papers this week that he has turned over a
Mercedes-Benz and his New York apartment but not the paperwork
necessary to monetize the assets. And they said he has failed to
surrender watches and sports memorabilia, including the DiMaggio
jersey, and not “a single dollar from his nonexempt cash
accounts.”
Liman said in an order last week that Giuliani's lawyer should
be ready to explain why he should not be held in contempt with
resulting sanctions that could make it less likely he gets to
keep his Florida home. 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 his personal residence
now and should be shielded from the judgment.
His lawyers have predicted that he will eventually win custody
of the items on appeal.
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Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this
report.
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