Rudy's Filing

This week, Harry Dunn and I covered a response to one of three contempt motions against Rudy Giuliani, but you really need to see it in all its stupid glory.

Over the years, I have read a LOT of court filings submitted by Trump and his allies, but this past week, a response to one of Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss’ multiple contempt motions against Rudy Giuliani takes the cake. It’s got everything! Bad grammar, misspellings, and incoherent run-on sentences. It’s so very bad, I just had to write about it.

First, there are currently three contempt motions against Rudy Giuliani in multiple cases surrounding his defamation against Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. One of them is a motion for contempt for his failure to hand over his assets to a receivership pursuant to the verdict against him for defaming the Georgia election workers. Another is a contempt motion filed by Freeman and Moss for Rudy’s continued defamation of the two women in violation of a court order. Then there’s the third - a contempt motion filed by Freeman and Moss over Rudy’s failure to hand over a single document in discovery for a trial coming up next month regarding Rudy’s Florida condo.

What I’m about to break down for you is Rudy’s response to the contempt motion filed over his failure to produce discovery.

Some more background: the judge in the discovery contempt motion is trump-appointed Judge Lewis Liman in the Southern District of New York. The judge in the receivership contempt motion is also Lewis Liman, and the judge in the defamation contempt motion is Judge Beryl Howell.

It’s also important to remember that Rudy’s lawyers quit. They ditched him. Rudy and his new lawyer blame the judges for that, saying that no lawyer wants to go up against the politically biased judges. The real reason they quit is that Rudy refused to cooperate with his counsel to hand over discovery in the Florida condo case. So Rudy has a new lawyer - Joseph Cammarata. He’s the one that filed the response I’m about to cover.

Also, Rudy has to appear before Judge Liman on January 3rd for a hearing over the receivership contempt motion, and Rudy’s lawyer filed a couple of Christmas Eve responses arguing that Rudy has handed over his stuff - but I’ll go over those newer filings on the New Year’s Day episode of Cleanup on Aisle 45.

With that, let’s talk about Cammarata’s response to the Florida condo discovery motion for contempt - because it’s just so poorly written that it has to be shared. I’m not a lawyer, but if my lawyer handed me this response, I wouldn’t let him submit it. It’s not just epically bad. It’s astoundingly bad.

Rudy’s lawyer writes:

Plaintiffs’ memorandum of law states that “Mr. Giuliani has not produced a single document in response to Plaintiffs’ discovery orders in this matter notwithstanding multiple orders from this Court requiring him to do so…” (Plaintiff’s memorandum of law, page 1). That is not true and is false.

Did you get that? It is not true AND is false. Just in case you missed the “not true” part. As soon as I read that, I made a note to myself to keep an eye out for Rudy’s lawyer to mention how it’s not true and false. Generally, I see arguments like “Defendant has since produced approximately 40,000 pages of responsive material,” or “Defendant is currently using such-and-such software to search 3 terabytes of data for key words responsive to the discovery requests.” There are no such statements in this filing. Just a repeat of how unfair this all is for poor Rudy, and how the Florida condo is his primary residence (which is an argument you make at trial, not in a filing to show cause why your client shouldn’t be held in contempt for failing to hand over discovery.)

Defendant obtained new counsel, Joseph Cammarata, Esq., replaced Kenneth Caruso, Esq. and David Labkowski, Esq. on November 26, 2024. Defendant’s present counsel quickly began to review all of the Court’s orders and began to obtain all responses to the Plaintiffs’ discovery demands to comply with all of this Court’s orders and Plaintiffs’ discovery demands.

Setting aside the atrocious grammar, “began to obtain discovery demands to comply with discovery demands” is pretty vague. Sounds like he has “concepts of a plan” to comply.

As this Court should know, Plaintiffs obtained probably one of the largest judgments for defamation ever granted to a Plaintiff in the United States, the $145,969,000 plus interest Judgment against Defendant. Notwithstanding the fact that the Judgment in on appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Defendant’s present counsel immediately began the process of causing the turnover of assets of the Defendant to the Plaintiffs who were appointed as the Receivers by this Court.

I mean, wow. Try this: “As this court is aware, plaintiffs were awarded $148M - one of the largest judgments for defamation granted in the US - a judgement defendant is appealing. Additionally, defendant’s present counsel is in the process of complying with this court’s receivership order.” Then perhaps a sentence or two about why the receivership case matters; is it taking away from the time you need to comply with the discovery orders in this case? Or are you just whining about the court’s orders in general? Make a point, my dude. Also, I can think of two recent defamation cases with larger awards: Fox News and Alex Jones. But whatever.

Next, Cammarata starts accusing the Trump-appointed judge of political bias:

Every human being has political beliefs, and no matter what the Court’s personal beliefs are, the Court should recognize that you have a Defendant here with an enormous judgment against him as the Plaintiffs were awarded a judgment now in excess of $145,969,000 which includes $75,000,000 in punitive damages, and this Court should recognize that Plaintiffs’ counsels are political and apparently are swayed toward the democratic party, and you have the Defendant who was a Republic Mayor and who was an attorney for former and future President Donald J. Trump, who was and is deeply rooted in republican beliefs.

“A Republic Mayor.” Awesome. Also, did you notice that entire paragraph is one sentence?

Next up is some shit I can’t figure out:

This Court should know that one or more of Plaintiffs’ counsels was partners with Hunter Biden as Boies Schiller Flexner LLC (at Boies Schiller Flexner?), President Joseph Biden’s son, and had been involved with, upon information and belief, Burisma Holdings and/or Ukrainian issues. These issues became very, very political and charged (politically charged?) during the 2020 Presidential Campaign and thereafter. One or more of the organizations of the Plaintiffs’ counsels are politically based organizations, such as the organization United to Protect Democracy, whose website states” “Protect Democracy is a… group dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat… and protecting liberal democracy. Our experts and advocates use litigation, …. to stand up for… the rule of law…. and a better democracy for future generations”. No matter what anyone says, the truth and fact is that Plaintiffs are represented by those who believe in liberal democracy, and you have a defendant whose beliefs are the antithesis of the Plaintiffs’ counsel (Rudy is antithesis to the rule of law and a better democracy? Agreed!)

Rudy’s lawyer goes on to mention Hunter Biden eight more times in this filing. Including in this bonkers paragraph:

Plaintiffs and their counsel are seeking to take every asset of the Defendant before there is a change in administration from President Biden to President Trump. The fact is that this case evolved from the 2020 election, where Defendant worked for President Trump and while the Plaintiffs’ counsel was to believed to have supported President Biden; this is what this fierce prosecution of this case derives from. Defendant was very outspoken against Hunter Biden and the Hunter Biden laptop which many people said was Russian disinformation, when the truth eventually came out that the Hunter Biden laptop was authentic and real. At least one of Plaintiffs’ counsel has emails in the public domain with Hunter Biden on the same emails, and such counsel was Special Assistant to President Barak Obama and Associate White House Counsel . The fact is that this case is not really about the judgment that the Plaintiffs obtained in a ghastly sum, among the largest judgment ever against an individual for defamation in the United States. This is a battle between the left and the right and this is one of the last battles that exist from the 2020 election.

“was to believed to have”

“Barak Obama” (it’s misspelled again in the footnote)

GHASTLY SUM!

“among the largest judgment ever”

Rudy’s lawyer then complains that Freeman and Moss’ counsel worked pro-bono, and put thousands of hours into their case. That kind of implies that no one likes Rudy enough to work on his behalf for free, but whatever. Cammarata’s point is that Freeman and Moss are winning on technicalities because they have a robust legal team. He’s also really mad that the case is “going fast” - which it totally isn’t:

This Court has fast-tracked this case and it is perplexing why this rapid rocket docket approach has been utilized, but the fact is that the Plaintiffs want this case over by January 20, 2025 when President Trump takes office, because it’s not in Willkie Farr & Gallagher’s best interests to have this case proceeding once there is a new administration in Washington, as clients of Willkie Farr & Gallagher who would have to work with the new administration in Washington may be offended by the approaches taken by Willkie Farr & Gallagher with their manner of overly aggressive discovery tactics, designed to win, not on the merits, but on default or sanctions, because they cannot win based on the facts.

And this next paragraph kills me. He calls Liman “the honor judge” twice, and criticizes his appointment as political (without mentioning he was appointed by Trump):

This Court should try to avoid the politics involved in this case. When the Honorable Judge of this Court was nominated for the current District Judge position, no Democratic Senators voted against the nomination of the Honor Judge, but twenty nine (29) Republican Senators voted against the Honorable Judge. Hopefully, the Honor Judge will be able to be unbiased against Defendant. However, even subconsciously, a human being can have a political bias and the rapid rocket docket approach by this Court and entertaining so many of Plaintiffs’ motions and letters from the Plaintiffs’ counsel and ruling against the Defendant nearly 100% of the time is troubling.

Rudy’s lawyer then spends MULTIPLE pages arguing that Rudy’s primary residence is his Florida condo - completely irrelevant to whether he should be held in contempt for failing to turn over a single page of discovery. But that’s not all! He either lies to the court about why no discovery has been produced, or he was misinformed by Rudy about his previous counsel:

Defendant relied upon his prior counsels to respond to discovery demands in this case, but they were not served. When Defendant’s present counsel came into this case on November 26, 2024 when Defendant’s prior counsels were granted permission to withdraw as counsel, in the approximately three (3) weeks, there has been substantial compliance with all discovery and court orders.

He does not describe how he has substantially complied with discovery orders, but does tell that court that even if Rudy hasn’t produced anything, it shouldn’t matter because of the “rocket docket”, and because Freeman and Moss are out to get Rudy:

This Court should know that no matter what is provided to the Plaintiffs’ counsel, Plaintiffs’ counsel is and has been very unreasonable, because this is about Plaintiffs rushing to the finish line, getting all of the Defendant’s assets, getting the Defendant’s homestead condominium in Florida which is the Defendant’s only permanent residence and has been so, before a new administration takes office on January 20, 2025.

Next up is my favorite part. Rudy’s lawyer says he should get more time because Rudy is poor and everyone hates him:

The Honorable Judge once said that “The quality of our system of justice is measured by the service it provides to the poorest and most despised members of society” . There are many individuals who were against President Trump and as such, against Rudolph Giuliani, and many members of society despise Defendant Rudolph Giuliani and President Trump, however, the quality of our system of justice is measured by the service it provides to defendants like Defendant Rudolph Giuliani, who the Plaintiffs and their counsel apparently likely despise.

Then there’s this weird accusation about the judge’s father:

It is Defendant’s recent understanding that the Honorable Judge is the son of the late Arthur L. Liman, who it has been discovered passed away at a time when Defendant Rudolph Giuliani was the prosecutor as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the late Arthur L. Liman was representing certain defendants in Drexel Lambert prosecution cases (Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Dennis Levine). Defendant hopes that Defendant is afforded every right under the law by this Court in light of the knowledge that the Defendant before this Court is the person who was prosecuting the Honorable Judge’s late father Arthur L. Liman clients when or around the time that the Honorable Judge’s late father Arthur L. Liman passed away.

He finally concludes:

For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs’ motion should be denied in its entirety and for such other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper.

There’s a lot more in this filing, but those are the standout moments. I, for one, look forward to covering the Christmas Eve filings by Cammarata on the next Cleanup on Aisle 45 podcast with Harry Dunn.

You can read the full filing here.

~AG

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana