Lawyers for Rudy Giuliani seek to withdraw from defamation lawsuit due to "fundamental disagreement."

• In New York federal court, lawyers representing Rudy Giuliani in a lawsuit related to a massive defamation judgment against him are seeking to withdraw from the case.
• Giuliani, the former Trump campaign attorney, has been ordered to pay $146 million to two Georgia election workers for making false claims about them, according to lawyers who cited major disagreements with him.
• Giuliani represented now-President-elect Donald Trump after the 2020 election.

In New York federal court, lawyers representing Rudy Giuliani in a lawsuit related to a massive defamation judgment against him are seeking to withdraw from the case, stating major differences with the former Trump campaign attorney regarding the handling of the matter.

A week after the judge threatened to hold him in contempt of court, the defendant surrendered personal property to satisfy some of the $146 million judgment in favor of two Georgia election workers he defamed after the 2020 election while representing current President-elect Donald Trump.

In a filing Wednesday night, Giuliani's lawyer Kenneth Caruso and co-counsel David Labkowski cited three reasons for seeking to withdraw from the case in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The lawyer disagrees with the client's demand to take action and present an unjustified claim or defense.

The third ground mentioned in the filing was that the client did not cooperate in the representation or made it excessively difficult for the lawyer to perform their job effectively.

The motion has four paragraphs that are blacked out in the publicly available copy of the document.

Judge Lewis Liman was previously requested by Caruso to maintain the entire motion confidential, as it contained information that could potentially be damaging or embarrassing to the client if made public.

Caruso was permitted to submit a public version of his sealed document, which removed confidential information related to his legal work for Giuliani.

According to Ted Goodman, Giuliani's spokesman, the mayor was not informed by Caruso about the action.

Goodman stated that Mr. Caruso would definitely communicate with the mayor about the decision or at the very least inform him.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, when President Trump was attempting to overturn his defeat to President Joe Biden, Giuliani served as his legal representative.

During that time, Giuliani falsely accused Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss of committing ballot fraud at a Georgia vote-counting site. The women, who are a mother and daughter, later sued Giuliani for defamation.

In August 2023, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled in favor of the women's attorneys and issued a default judgment against Giuliani for failing to comply with orders to turn over evidence.

In December, a jury trial awarded $146 million in damages to the women who were defamed by Giuliani.

The lawyer representing the women has lodged a complaint against Giuliani, stating that he has obstructed the lawyer's attempts to obtain certain personal items that Giuliani has been instructed to surrender in order to fulfill a portion of the judgment.

Those items include luxury watches, baseball memorabilia and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz.