UPDATE — Rudy Giuliani: going to jail today, in Manhattan?
It is unclear whether he’s testifying now, at the contempt hearing in Manhattan — but it should be nearly over, already — if he’s back from the bathroom break he’s requested. [Additional update — court on lunch break. No substantive testimony from Hizzoner yet.]
What a crock — he just knows he’s… cooked, and in my opinion — he’s just tap-dancing (he may leave the courthouse and not go back into the court room). End, update.
You couldn’t make this nonsense up — if you tried.
On the night before he was to appear for a contempt hearing, Hizzoner’s lawyers tried to say he would “be willing to” appear by Zoom only, but wished to offer evidence (and avoid cross examination, in person).
Quite rightly, the able USDC Judge Liman called BS on this chicanery, in an overnight order:
…Defendant [Giuliani] does not assert he is unable to travel. He submits no medical evidence. He has appeared in person at two prior hearings in this matter. See Minute Entry, November 7, 2024; Minute Entry, November 26, 2024. He has previously asked for an adjournment of the trial so that he could travel to Washington, D.C. this month. Dkt. No. 121 at 4. Plaintiffs take the position that, if Defendant is permitted to testify at the hearing, Plaintiff will want to cross-examine him in person and in that event, the request to appear remotely should be denied. Dkt. No. 214….
Defendant has communicated to the Court that he intends to rely on, and asks the Court to consider, his submitted declarations and his deposition transcript. Dkt. No. 211 at 1. Those documents would be hearsay if not sworn to by Defendant [Giuliani] tomorrow and if Plaintiffs were not given an opportunity to cross-examine. Fed. R. Evid. 801. In short, Defendant has asked the Court for the right to testify — at least by declaration. At the same time, however, Defendant has not shown good cause or compelling circumstances for his belated request to testify remotely. See Radosti, 2022 WL 2119299, at *2 (denying request to testify remotely where parties did not “provide sworn affidavits or any medical documentation describing or substantiating their representation that, due to medical reasons, they are unable to travel to testify at trial”)….
Defendant [Giuliani] has appeared in the recent past, on occasions where his testimony has not been required and the Court has not been asked to hold Defendant in contempt. He has presented no evidence why for this hearing, where the Court has been asked to hold him in contempt, where his credibility has been called into question, and where Plaintiffs have asked for an opportunity to cross-examine him in person, he should be permitted to deny Plaintiffs that opportunity and to appear remotely. Plaintiffs would be prejudiced by being denied the opportunity, ordinarily accorded to any other litigants, to cross-examine the witnesses against them live and in open court….
I’ll report if Rudy showed up today in Manhattan — but the hearing should already be underway. And he will shortly be found in… contempt.
That permits his jailing, among other matters — which is why he’s likely… not in Manhattan, in all probability.
More soon, but he’s still not been cross examined. Update No. 3 — he’s now being cross-examined — here’s how InnerCityPress live tweets it: “…Inner City Press @innercitypress
31 seconds ago
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Larsen: Do you understand that the term communications would include e-mails?
Giuliani: I don’t think so. No.
Larsen: It is your testimony that emails are not communications?
Giuliani: They are more like documents….”
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Larsen: Do you see this request regarding travel between January 2020 and the present, all physical or electronic calendars?
Giuliani: I do.
Larsen: And you said assistants kept it on notes and discarded them?
Giuliani: I’ve done that for years
Giuliani: When I was a lawyer my secretary would keep a detailed calendar. I don’t do it anymore. I just have notes on the wall, then I throw them out. I thought it was inappropriate you ask for all my doctors, it was not relevant….
USDC Judge Liman: You don’t get to determine that….”
Damnation. I’ll update later this afternoon, once again, when — not if — Mr. Giuliani is found in contempt (and whether he will spend at least the night in jail). Out for now.
नमस्ते
That much is certain. What we don’t know is whether he will personally be in court this time. But his counsel and the counsel for the two Georgia election workers (both from Wilkie Farr)… will be. And the capable USDC Judge Liman will be presiding from the bench, live.
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