Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is in a legal fight to save his Florida condominium and three Yankees World Series rings he claims belong to his son — an effort that stems from the $148 million defamation judgement against him.
What You Need To Know
- A federal judge will determine if former Mayor Rudy Giuliani must give up his Florida condo and Yankees World Series rings
- The assets will cover some of a $148 million judgement against Giuliani for defaming wo Georgia election workers
- He claims his Florida condo is protected as a primary residence and that his son now owns the World Series rings
A federal judge Thursday will hold a trial to decide whether or not Giuliani has to give up his Florida condo and the World Series rings to pay down the judgement.
Giuliani was found to have defamed two Georgia election workers in the wake of the 2020 election. Giuliani was Donald Trump's personal attorney.
To keep his condo, he must prove the Palm Beach, Florida, condo is his primary residence.
Giuliani was found to be in contempt of court twice, stemming from the defamation case.
It's just one of the many investigations and civil cases against the former mayor.
"I pity him and I don't know how it happened," George Grasso, a retired judge from Queens, said.
Grasso knew Giuliani when he ran City Hall. He was the NYPD's chief legal officer.
"I was very proud to be working for a man of his caliber at the time," Grasso told NY1. "I believe then and I believe now in his eight years as mayor, that Mayor Rudloph Giuliani has earned his place in history, right up next to LaGuardia."
Nor does the Giuliani who would defame election workers resemble the mayor who rallied the city after the 9/11 terror attacks, Grasso added.
"We had decent and honorable people just doing their job, who were slandered, who ended up being subjected to horrible threats," Grasso said.
Representatives for Giuliani did not return requests for comment from NY1.
As for the World Series rings, Giuliani, who is a Yankees fanatic, contends that those rings no longer belong to him. They belong to his son, Andrew.
Andrew Giuliani intervened in the case and filed a photo from 2018 in court that shows him and his wife posing with the rings. Giuliani's son wrote in the court filing that his father said to him, "I told you when I got these that they would be yours someday, and I want to give them to you now."
To Ron Kuby, a civil rights lawyer who frequently sued the Giuliani administration and NYPD, the former mayor at 80 years old exhibits the same qualities he did in his heyday.
"If some court or some jury or some judge ruled against him, it didnt matter," Kuby told NY1. "He was out there in this very aggressive way, which in some ways presaged this Rudy we see today, this sort of extra-legal Rudy."
Kuby also represents a client with a defamation case against Giuliani — just another case on top of all the other trials and tribulations of "America's mayor."