Giuliani testifies he hid his grandfather’s watch from defamed election workers: ‘I felt it could get lost’
Share:
The former New York mayor insists he’s ‘not trying to hide’ but doesn’t know where his some of his assets are or if he ever had them during the long-running case to collect $148 million. On Friday, he testified for more than three hours in a federal courtroom in Manhattan as attorneys painstakingly poured over his sworn statements in thick stacks of court filings.
![[A courtroom sketch depicts Rudy Giuliani listening in a courtroom on January 3 as he faces potential contempt sanctions in a property turnover case]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/04/01/2025-01-03T183854Z_2057483575_RC2I2CAPH74Y_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP-GIULIANI.jpg)
Squinting at a small monitor in front of him, the 80-year-old former New York City mayor repeatedly said he never intentionally withheld information about his assets, didn’t recall seeing certain statements, and never willfully disobeyed court orders to turn over his property.
![[The former New York City mayor and his attorney Joseph Cammarata spoke to reporters after a seven-hour contempt hearing in Manhattan federal court January 3]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/04/01/b6934474fabd4c9da73d3e5b8b59f5bf.jpg)
But he admitted he did not want to give the mother-daughter election workers his grandfather’s 120-year-old gold pocketwatch. “I felt it could get lost if I turned it over,” Giuliani said from the witness stand. Friday’s seven-hour hearing will be part of District Judge Lewis Liman’s determintion whether Donald Trump’s former attorney should be held in contempt for repeatedly blowing deadlines and requests for evidence in a case stemming from a defamation judgment for his false claims against them women in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
![[A court sketch depicts Giuliani listening as election workers’ attorney Aaron Nathan testifies to the authenticity of court documents entered into evidence]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/04/01/2025-01-03T184833Z_1718734103_RC2I2CABJBBU_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP-GIULIANI.jpg)
Attorneys repeatedly reminded Giuliani that Liman ordered his “unequivocal obligation” to the court’s asset turnover order — or risk facing potentially severe sanctions — but he now claims that he doesn’t know where some of the property are, or if he even had some of it to begin with.
