# A thread for Rudy {Rudy Giuliani} **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 16, 2023, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355 "2023-08-16T04:08:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 50
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2024, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/987 "2024-12-26T16:12:25Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > It seems to me that Rudy is either being deliberately obtuse or he’s really really stupid. There is more than sufficient evidence that he’s both. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/988 "2024-12-26T16:37:30Z")
To be that good at something, you really have to try. Rudy has to be the acknowledged grandmaster of obfuscating stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2024, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/989 "2024-12-26T21:12:04Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > it looks like Rudy’s avenues of appeal are all but exhausted I certainly can’t imagine him being very appealing to anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2024, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/990 "2024-12-31T16:58:41Z")
Rudy files his witness list for the upcoming hearing, under seal, so only the judge could see it. Judge orders it be unsealed; no authority for Giuliani to keep his witnesses secret. > **[Judge thwarts Rudy Giuliani's attempt to keep witness list sealed ahead of...](https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/neither-directed-nor-permitted-judge-thwarts-rudy-giulianis-attempt-to-keep-witness-list-sealed-ahead-of-upcoming-trial/amp/)** > > A federal judge in New York ordered Rudy Giuliani's witness list for his trial next month to be made public after the former mayor tried to file it under seal. > [@](#): > > The witness list filing — which includes a retired priest who played a pivotal role in the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal in New York — stems from litigation regarding the fate of Giuliani’s multimillion-dollar Florida condominium, which earlier this year he claimed was his permanent residence, making it eligible for homestead protection under state law and thereby exempting the Palm Beach property from debt collection proceedings. > > Attorneys for the Georgia election workers have pushed back on that claim, alleging in court documents that Giuliani treated the Florida condo as a vacation home, not a permanent residence. The duo have been alleging that Giuliani is refusing to answer certain questions required in the discovery process because truthful answers would show he has not been honest about the Florida property. The priest in question is apparently an old friend of Giuliani and was an unindicted person in a Catholic pedophile court case. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2024, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/991 "2024-12-31T17:01:39Z")
At first sight I thought he was templing his fingers. Which would have been so cool. Majesterial, even. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2024, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/992 "2024-12-31T17:12:22Z")
You’d think as a lawyer Rudy would know this stuff? But of course it’s more delaying mud. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2024, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/993 "2024-12-31T17:21:56Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Maybe Rudy won’t be flat-ass broke for much longer: Rudy has been trying to sell his own brand of coffee since May. > **[Rudy Giuliani launches $30 ‘Rudy Coffee’ after WABC drama, bankruptcy case...](https://nypost.com/2024/05/20/us-news/rudy-giuliani-launches-coffee-brand-amid-bankruptcy-case-and-legal-woes/)** > > For $29.99, two pounds of the “finest beans imaginable” can be yours, according to Giuliani.  Previously, he was working at the radio station WABC in New York, but he was fired from that job. The coffee idea was a desperate attempt to try to have some kind of income, and you’ll note he created it alongside Maria Ryan, who was his cohost at that radio station. (Well, by “created” I mean “put his name on it and appeared in really bad web commercials for it”.) And it turns out that the coffee is really just a rebranded version of Don Pablo coffee, which is owned by Burke Brands. > **[Rudy’s Coffee Roastery Also Just Went Bankrupt](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rudy-coffee-roastery-just-went-233825960.html)** > > Rudy Giuliani’s looking to a Miami coffee company for cash during his bankruptcy—while it looks to him during its own financial crisis. Burke Brands has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy itself since 2022. It just looks like failure upon failure to me. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2024, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/994 "2024-12-31T17:53:40Z")
I think it’s becoming a version of [_ **Dirty Rotten Scoundrels** _](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Rotten_Scoundrels_(film)), where Rudy is the Steve Martin character and TFG is the Michael Caine character. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2024, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/995 "2024-12-31T18:18:37Z")
> [@Atamasama quoting the Post](#): > > For $29.99, two pounds of the “finest beans imaginable” can be yours, according to Giuliani. So it’s kopi luwak only from Rudy instead of palm civets? No thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/996 "2025-01-01T00:05:16Z")
The movie that came to my mind was Trading places with Rudy as Louis Winthorpe III, except that rather than having his fall organized by outside forces it was all him. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/997 "2025-01-01T02:11:05Z")
Hmm, will trump pardon him? It wont clear Rudy of everything, of course. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/998 "2025-01-01T02:21:36Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > will trump pardon him? It wont clear Rudy of everything, of course. Presidential pardons have no effect on civil cases/judgements. Or state criminal cases, such as he’s facing in Georgia and Arizona. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/999 "2025-01-01T02:33:09Z")
I think it’s not settled whether the pardon power applies to contempt? I’ve seen speculation on that point, but no cite. Is contempt an offence against the United States, or is it an enforcement power within the court’s civil jurisdiction? Deep waters, Watson. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/1000 "2025-01-01T02:42:50Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Presidential pardons have no effect on civil cases/judgements. Or state criminal cases, such as he’s facing in Georgia and Arizona. Right, isnt that what I said? > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I think it’s not settled whether the pardon power applies to contempt? I’d say, and ianal, that if you are in jail due to contempt, and you get a pardon, you get out. But that is just a slightly informed guess. What do you think? but doesnt he have some federal issues? > **[Rudy Giuliani’s Mounting Legal Trouble: Here Are All The Issues Trump...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/04/25/rudy-giulianis-mounting-legal-trouble-here-are-all-the-issues-trump-attorney-faces-amid-arizona-indictment/)** > > Arizona became the second state Wednesday to reportedly charge Giuliani based on his post-election efforts. **DOJ Indictment:** _Giuliani is believed to be “co-conspirator 1” in a separate federal indictment charging Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his attorney has [acknowledged](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/giuliani-powell-appear-alleged-trump-co-conspirators-rcna97641), after the document described an “attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/1001 "2025-01-01T02:47:48Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But that is just a slightly informed guess. What do you think? I don’t know if it’s an offence. For one thing, « a contemnor has the keys to the jail cell in his hand. ». If you’re in jail for contempt, you can let yourself out by complying with the court order. That’s not the case with jail as a punishment for an offence, where the individual has a set sentence to serve. As well, contempt is the power of the court to enforce its own decision. If the president interferes with that, is that an intrusion on the separation of powers, by giving the executive the power to stop court process? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/1002 "2025-01-01T02:49:34Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > If you’re in jail for contempt, you can let yourself out by complying with the court order. Which might be something difficult, or unethical to do, like give up a Confidential informant. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/1003 "2025-01-01T02:51:47Z")
Possibly, but complying with ordinary civil discovery rules for the enforcement of a debt owing doesn’t fit in those edge categories. 😀 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/1004 "2025-01-01T03:17:51Z")
Good point. But there were possible Federal charges coming. And trump related ones too. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/1005 "2025-01-04T14:34:42Z")
Rudy appears to have had some success in staving off contempt: > [@](#): > > Rudy Giuliani seemed to favorably impress a judge with three hours of testimony Friday at a contempt hearing as he insisted he’s not hiding assets from lawyers trying to recover [a $148 million judgment](https://apnews.com/article/giuliani-2020-election-georgia-defamation-moss-freeman-6f6446c4f5224f521db8ff7763fb12d1) for two Georgia election workers. > > [Judge Lewis J. Liman](https://apnews.com/article/rudy-giuliani-defamation-georgia-election-workers-4bd622388a8ef296f6a8ead1bff59462) seemed less inclined to find the former mayor in contempt for failing to turn over some assets, including a valuable signed Joe DiMaggio jersey that appeared to go missing after Giuliani said he last saw it around Sept. 11 in his Manhattan apartment. > … > When he asked a lawyer for the election workers if the plaintiffs were more interested in recovering assets than finding Giuliani in contempt, attorney Meryl Conant Governski quickly agreed, saying contempt was not “our primary goal.” > … > Governski, more matter-of-fact than confrontational, elicited from Giuliani how overwhelmed he felt by court orders coming at him in multiple cases across the country at once. > … > Giuliani said repeatedly that he wasn’t purposefully trying to withhold assets. He portrayed himself as forgetful, disorganized at times and having delegated to others some of the chores regarding his assets and the legal case surrounding them. > **[Rudy Giuliani insists he's not hiding assets at contempt hearing over $148...](https://apnews.com/article/rudy-giuliani-defamation-georgia-election-workers-8d783fe65fd6e884059e3e8289c6af4f)** > > Rudy Giuliani insisted during three hours of testimony in a New York courtroom at a contempt hearing that he's not hiding assets from lawyers trying to recover a $148 million judgment for two Georgia election workers. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355/1006 "2025-01-04T15:59:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Governski, more matter-of-fact than confrontational, elicited from Giuliani how overwhelmed he felt by court orders coming at him in multiple cases across the country at once. I was hoping the next line was “Governski followed up Guiliani’s response with ‘and who’s fucking fault do you think that is?’” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355.md?page=49) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-rudy-rudy-giuliani/989355.md?page=51)