Rudy Giuliani’s lawyers are trying to quit his defamation case

The lawyers who have been representing Rudy Giuliani are trying to quit his defamation case because of disagreements with him, according to new court filings, as a Friday deadline nears for the former New York City mayor to turn over many of his most valuable possessions to two Georgia election workers to whom he owes nearly $150 million.

The lawyers who have been representing Rudy Giuliani are trying to quit his defamation case because of disagreements with him, according to new court filings, as a Friday deadline nears for the former New York City mayor to turn over many of his most valuable possessions to two Georgia election workers to whom he owes nearly $150 million. Specifics of what happened between Giuliani and his lawyers are redacted in the Wednesday court filings. But Giuliani’s attorneys told a judge, according to the filings, that they must end their representation because of ethics rules that protect lawyers from working for clients with whom they have “a fundamental disagreement,” who are uncooperative or if they are asked to contradict the law. Giuliani has fiercely but unsuccessfully tried to fight decisions in court that allow Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whom he defamed by falsely claiming they tampered with votes in the 2020 election, to take control of his bank accounts, $6 million Manhattan apartment, collection of luxury watches, valuable gifts he received after the September 11, 2001, attacks and baseball memorabilia. The mother and daughter plan to sell off the possessions to satisfy some of the debt Giuliani owes them. His primary attorney, Kenneth Caruso, had appeared to be following Giuliani’s direction–at times futilely–at a hearing last week in federal court in Manhattan where he unsuccessfully tried to keep ahold of prized possessions like a 1980 Mercedes-Benz convertible and a watch from Giuliani’s grandfather. At the hearing, Giuliani repeatedly whispered directions to Caruso, occasionally contradicting him, and the judge called some of their statements in court “farcical” and “ridiculous.”