United States: Rudy Giuliani held responsible for obstruction of justice

Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor of New York and federal prosecutor in that city, was found Monday responsible for obstruction of justice, following his conviction in 2023 to a huge financial compensation in a defamation case.

The federal judge in the southern jurisdiction of New York State, in Manhattan, Lewis Liman, ruled that he had failed in his obligations to provide information about his assets and how to compensate two women he had defamed after the presidential election of November 2020, according to audience reports from American media.

Rudy Giuliani, 80, was the architect of Donald Trump’s offensive four years ago to try to invalidate President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. In August and December 2023, He was ordered to pay $148 million to two electoral agents from the pivotal state of Georgia (southeast), Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.

Racist insults

From a video showing the two women passing an object – which turned out to be a mint tablet – during the counting of the ballots in November 2020, the ex-mayor and former anti-corruption prosecutor claimed that they exchanged a USB stick “as if they were doses of heroin or cocaine” to fake the results.

The complainants, both black, recounted how these accusations, fueled by Donald Trump, had earned them insults and threats, often of a racist nature. Last October, Judge Liman ordered Rudy Giuliani to give up part of his assets to compensate the two women.

Including his ten-room apartment on Manhattan’s upscale Upper East Side, his 1980 Mercedes-Benz convertible, jewelry, 26 luxury watches and collectibles, like a jersey signed by the baseball legend – ball Joe DiMaggio.

Irony

Although he agreed to give up his car and his watches, Rudolph “Rudy” Giuliani refused to give up the baseball jersey. Which has disappeared, joked the “New York Times” on Monday. The former mayor also owns a condominium in Palm Beach, Florida, very close to Donald Trump’s home, valued at $3.5 million.

Rudy Giuliani must return to a civil trial in Manhattan on January 16 to prove that this apartment is now his main residence, and no longer that of Manhattan, and that it cannot therefore be seized for compensation.

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