Rudy Giuliani's 'discovery misconduct' in defamation case opens door for bankruptcy lawyers to demand docs

Source: Law & Crime

Mar 8th, 2024, 2:28 pm


The stakes were already high for former NYC mayor in Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy following a $148 million judgment for defaming Georgia election workers, but now his flouting of discovery in the Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss case is being used as a justification for a far-reaching proposed order complete with discovery demands that threaten to expose the “nature of any legal services that you have performed, or continue to perform, for Donald J. Trump” and much more.

Attorneys for the appointed Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the bankruptcy case on Thursday filed a notice of a hearing to take place before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane at 2 p.m. on April 4 on the committee’s motion to allow discovery demands to be served via subpoena on Giuliani and third parties, like his companies, his legal defense funds, his son Andrew Giuliani (the “designated agent” of the Giuliani Defense legal fund), Maria Ryan, and others.

The notice of hearing submitted attorney Philip Dublin of the firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, requiring that “any responses or objections” to the attached motion be “served so as to be actually received by the Court and the Committee no later than March 28, 2024 at 4:00 p.m.,” stated an interest in probing Giuliani’s “assets, liabilities, relevant prepetition conduct and financial position.”

The motion pointed out that Giuliani’s massive defamation judgment came about after his “willful shirking of his discovery obligations” lost him the case by default. In light of that, the attorneys said, “substantial doubt exists” that Giuliani is willing or able to “comply fully with his disclosure obligations” in the resulting bankruptcy case set in the same jurisdiction where he made his name as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/rudy-giulianis-discovery-misconduct-in-defamation-case-opens-door-for-bankruptcy-lawyers-to-demand-docs-on-legal-services-for-trump-cable-tv-earnings-and-more/