Rudy Giuliani, who served two terms as the mayor of New York City, has requested to appear virtually for his contempt hearing at federal court in New York on Friday, as two election staffers from Georgia seek to collect the $148 million defamation award they won against him in December 2023.  

Mr. Guiliani’s attorneys filed a request for a “zoom hearing,” citing health issues, CBS News reported Thursday night, claiming that the former mayor, 80, suffers from “a bad knee and recently discovered lung issues due to his time at ground zero following the September 11 terror attacks,” the network reported.

Last week, a federal district judge, Lewis Liman, scheduled a contempt hearing at the Southern District Court of New York, where Mr. Guiliani is set to go to trial on January 16 over his refusal to turn over his condominium at Palm Beach, Florida, where he says he resides, and four Yankees World Series rings, which he says belong to his son, to help pay the enormous judgment.

In November, Judge Liman denied Mr. Guiliani’s request to postpone the trial so he could attend President Trump’s inauguration ceremony on January 20. 

“My client regularly consults and deals directly with President-elect Trump on issues that are taking place as the incoming administration is afoot as well as (the) inauguration,” Mr. Guiliani’s defense attorney, Joseph Cammarata, told the judge, the Associated Press reported. “My client wants to exercise his political right to be there.”

The judge said conflicts in Mr. Guiliani’s “social calendar” did not justify delaying the trial, though. During the November hearing, Mr. Guiliani, who was once a figure of significant power in the Southern District court when he was the United States attorney there in the 1980s, angered the judge by interrupting the proceeding, and speaking into the microphone. 

The judge said Mr. Guiliani could either defend himself or let his lawyers do the talking, but he would not permit a “hybrid representation.” 

Mr. Guiliani, who represented Trump as a private attorney during his presidency, was actively involved in Trump’s efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election, including the results in Georgia. He has been criminally charged in Georgia — as one of Trump’s co-defendants in Fani Willis’ endangered RICO case — and in Arizona.

In 2023, Mr. Giuliani was found liable for defaming two poll staffers from Georgia, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, when he accused them of cheating in 2020. A video that Mr. Giuliani shared purported to show that the two women were scanning ballots multiple times to benefit President Biden at an absentee ballot counting facility at Fulton County, Georgia. 

The women, who deny wrongdoing, sued Mr. Guiliani for money. They testified that they received death threats after he accused them of disregarding and hiding ballots for Trump, while counting ballots for Mr. Biden and tampering with voting machines. After a civil trial at Washington D.C., an eight-person jury held Mr. Guiliani liable and he was ordered to pay the women $148 million. So far, though, Mr. Guiliani has only paid a very small portion of the judgment by handing over some luxury watches, a ring, an unspecified amount of cash, and his prized Mercedes — but without the title, according to his pursuers’ attorneys.

Mr. Giuliani, who spent most of his career in public service and has been divorced three times, does not have the full $148 million, or anything close to it. He’s appealing the verdict, but has still been ordered to start handing over assets to the two women he was found liable for defaming.

Attorneys for the election officials initially filed the request for contempt after Mr. Guiliani failed to comply with a court order to turn over the watches and jewelry and the Mercedes, along with a lease to his Manhattan apartment and a signed Joe DiMaggio shirt. Even though Mr. Giuliani turned over the watches and the car, and put his Manhattan apartment on the market, the Georgia women are aggressively pursuing all his remaining possessions of value.

Mr. Giuliani’s most valuable possession may be his Florida residence, estimated to be worth more than $3 million, and the Yankees World Series rings, which were given to him by the team’s late owner, George Steinbrenner. Florida law protects someone’s home from debt collectors: OJ Simpson moved to Florida to avoid a $33.5 million dollar judgement he was ordered to pay the families of his wife and her friend after a trial in civil court, which followed his acquittal on murder charges in criminal court.

In a sworn testimony, made public this week, Mr. Guiliani said that the World Series rings, which honor the Yankees’ wins from the years 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000 — years during which Mr. Guiliani was the sitting mayor of New York — now belong to his son Andrew, 38, who’s worked for Trump in various capacities in recent years.

Mr. Giuliani testified that he told Mr. Steinbrenner when he gave him the rings in 2002 that, “These are for Andrew.” He further testified that he gave one ring to his son, while he guarded the other three until 2018. 

“They are now yours,” Mr. Giuliani remembered telling his son in 2018. “These are your rings. I don’t know what I’m keeping them for. They belong to you.”

Yet attorneys for the poll workers argue that Mr. Giuliani has shown a “consistent pattern of willful defiance” and refused to turn over his possessions. 

In a court filing on Monday, the attorney Aaron Nathan complained that when Mr. Guiliani finally handed over the Mercedes, which used to belong to the actress Lauren Bacall, he didn’t include the car’s title. Mr. Giuliani also does not know the whereabouts of the historic shirt signed by Joe DiMaggio and a photo signed by Reggie Jackson, who are two legendary Yankees baseball players, the lawyer wrote.  

In an order issued last Friday, Judge Liman ruled that Mr. Guiliani’s attorneys needed to explain during the contempt hearing why they were withholding evidence regarding Mr. Guiliani’s condominium in Florida. 

The defense has argued that because Mr.Giuliani lives in the condominium and it should be spared from the judgment under Florida law. His attorneys have also said they will win the case on appeal, and so for Mr. Giuliani to have to pay now is unreasonable. 

Judge Liman signaled that he could rule on the contempt request after Friday’s hearing. It was not clear on Thursday if Mr. Giuliani could attend the hearing virtually or would have to appear in person.