Full disclosure. I have never either liked or admired Rudy Giuliani. Growing up in The Second City, we had plenty of Gotham City smoke blown up our asses by the media. From the time Giuliani was appointed as the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, a political appointment, no skill required, he was an unutterable pain in the ass.
Take my word for it, Nosferatu was never all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips. He was the PT Barnum of public prosecution. Hold a press conference to announce major indictments, which were actually obtained by career prosecutors, stand back and let them do the work at trial, and then rush to the cameras to take the credit. A virulent racist as Mayor, it’s no wonder Giuliani tried to help Trump overthrow the election results, since he personally tried to use the national tragedy of 9/11 to stay in power by delaying the mayoral elections. As singer and actress used to brag as a trailer for her shows, He’s trash with flash.
That being said, it’s hard to see the current iteration of Giuliani as anything but a tragi-comic character in a B-movie. On the one hand, he’s obviously not in tip-top mental health, having spent the last couple of years sounding like the Roslyn Village Idiot, but on the other hand he’s savvy enough to maintain just enough contact with prosecutors to pressure Traitor Tot into throwing some coin his way for his legal defense fund.
All that being said, even a legal carnival barker who at least managed to pass the bar somewhere should know he’s playing with fire. The first thing any new lawyer going to court learns is to never piss off the judge. That dude can ride you like a Shetland pony, with spurs on his boots, and you take it. Because he can tank your case with sh*tty rulings from the bench.
And right now, Giuliani is doing nothing but piss off his trial judge. Not in the Fulton County case, I’m talking about the judge in his civil case filed by Fulton County election workers Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss.
A little more than a month ago, the judge in Giuliani’s civil trial against Freeman and Moss didn’t even bother to hold the trial. Instead he ruled a summary judgement for the plaintiffs. Why? Because the judge had previously ordered Giuliani to produce discovery documents, which were to include complete financial disclosure. Giuliani blew off the judge, and refused to provide the financial documents. The judge found for the plaintiffs, and while scheduling a hearing to determine damages, the judge also ordered Giuliani to pay $132,000 to the plaintiffs for their legal fees.
Well, guess what happened? Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss went into court this week to file a motion that Giuliani had failed to pay the legal fees as ordered by the court. And now the judge will have to schedule another procedural hearing, at which The Ghoul Man will be required to attend.
I think I’ve mentioned this a time or two before, but judges don’t like being ignored. They think that a $60 polyester black robe and a wooden mallet instill them with the Wisdom of Solomon. And Ghouliani has been pissing this judge off right from the start.
My guess is that the next hearing, the judge is going to ream Giuliani a new one, and order that he pony up within a certain number of days. He’ll likely increase the $132,000 tab to include plaintiff legal fees for the extra court appearances. And he’s unlikely to be moved by Rudy’s whiny please of pauperdom, especially with a $9 million Manhattan apartment on the market. Hey dude, drop it to $7 mil, and pay your bills.
Even a schlock lawyer like Giuliani can’t be this stupid, but it appears he is. If Giuliani once again defies another judicial order, I don’t see the judge having any other choice but to find Rudy G in direct contempt of court, and throwing him in the hoosegow until he ponies up the tab. Let’s see how long he lasts in Chateau Bow-wow.
And one more thing to consider. These court proceedings don’t proceed in a vacuum. Sooner or later Rudy is going to appear before Judge McAfee for his Fulton County trial. And judge McAfee is going to go into into it already knowing he has a judicial problem child on his hands. Giuliani is already sh*tting in his mess kit for a future proceeding that could put him away a helluva lot longer than a contempt citation. Stupid, thy name is Rudy.
