Giuliani Attorneys Ask to Quit $146 Million Defamation Suit (1)

Rudolph Giuliani’s lawyers are walking away from the former New York City mayor’s legal battle against a $146 million defamation judgment held by two 2020 election workers.

Kenneth A. Caruso and David Labkowski filed motions Wednesday to withdraw as Giuliani’s attorneys in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Caruso cited professional rules that allow a lawyer to withdraw when a “client insists upon taking action with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement.”

Their request to remove themselves from the case comes about a week after Judge Lewis J. Liman ordered Giuliani to turn over assets, including his Mercedes-Benz, to the two poll workers.

In their filings, which were largely redacted, the lawyers also cited a provision that allows withdrawal when “the client insists upon presenting a claim or defense that is not warranted under existing law and cannot be supported by good faith argument for an extension, modification, or reversal of existing law.”

They also pointed to a provision that permits them to walk away when “the client fails to cooperate in the representation or otherwise renders the representation unreasonably difficult for the lawyer to carry out employment effectively.”

Giuliani filed for bankruptcy last year after he was hit with the judgment for falsely accusing Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea’ Moss of tampering with 2020 presidential election ballots. His bankruptcy case was thrown out in August, allowing the pair to continue pursuing the judgment he owes.

Attorneys for Freeman and Moss on Wednesday raised concerns that Giuliani last month transferred property from his New York City apartment to a storage facility. Giuliani has been ordered to turn over the apartment to fulfill his defamation judgment.

“Mr. Giuliani and his associates did move a substantial amount of his property out of the New York Apartment while the motion for turnover was pending, without informing Plaintiffs and possibly without informing his own counsel,” an attorney for Freeman and Moss said in a letter to the court.

Liman entered a short order barring Giuliani from moving any of the property now located at the storage facility.

Some of that property may belong to the receivership, and Giuliani owes nearly $100,000 for the moving and storage services, according to the letter.

Freeman and Moss are represented by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.

The case is Freeman v. Giuliani, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:24-cv-06563, 11/13/24.