Judge hands Rudy Giuliani loss on eve of new trial involving defamation case

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is headed to court for a trial over whether he must turn over his Florida condo to the Georgia election workers he defamed — and he had a request shot down by the judge this week.

The once GOP presidential candidate and lawyer to Donald Trump asked to keep his witness list a secret, but U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman refused.

Law&Crime reported that the order was uploaded for the public to see on Monday.

"The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to unseal the documents," Liman ordered.

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On Dec. 23, Giuliani filed the list of people he intended to call but asked that it be kept secret. The judge said that he “neither directed nor permitted this list to be filed under seal.”

Giuliani was found to have defamed election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss after the 2020 election, saying they were part of a conspiracy to swing the election against Trump. Over and over it was proved incorrect, but Giuliani continued making the claims.

A jury awarded the women $148 million in damages after finding him liable for defamation.

Giuliani has been ordered to hand over much of his property, including his New York City penthouse apartment. He claimed that the Florida condo is his permanent residence, which would make it exempt from debt collecting under Florida homestead protections.

The witness list includes Monsignor Alan Placa, a retired priest who was heavily involved in the legal case dealing with the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal in New York. He is considered to be Giuliani's "long-time best friend," the New York Daily News wrote in 2023.

Maria Ryan and Michael Ragusa are among the five possible witnesses. Ryan is rumored to be Giuliani's girlfriend, and Ragusa is a former Rikers Island investigator and city council candidate. They will testify for about 30 minutes each, saying that they witnessed Giuliani move to the condo in Florida to live full-time.

“I don’t have a car. I don’t have a credit card. I don’t have cash.… I don’t have a penny, they have put stop orders on my Social Security account," Giuliani complained outside court in November.