Government

Rudy Giuliani's Got 99 Problems. Or 1.4 Million. Or A Hundred Million? Who Can Keep Track?

Witch Hunt!

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Rudy Giuliani And Trump Legal Advisor Hold Press Conference At RNC HQ

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Rudy Giuliani has been in quite a bit of legal hot water of late, and yesterday America’s Mayor got one more headache in the form of a collections suit filed by his former lawyer Robert Costello seeking almost $1.4 million in unpaid bills.

Giuliani, more or less ruined himself through his association with Donald Trump, who famously stiffed him on the bill for his services. (In fairness to Trump, Giuliani steered him into not one, but two impeachments.) But in his own way, Costello, a partner at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, has also tied his fortunes to the former president.

Costello played a crucial role in publicizing Hunter Biden’s “laptop”; he reportedly dangled a pardon to Michael Cohen during the Mueller investigation; and, in a failed attempt to head off an indictment of Trump for making false business records, he testified in March to a grand jury in New York that his former client was an untrustworthy scoundrel. He also counseled Steve Bannon that it was very cool and very legal for him to ignore a subpoena from the January 6 Select Committee, netting his client a conviction for contempt of Congress and making himself the subject of a communications warrant after making some perhaps exaggerated claims to the FBI. 

As for Giuliani, this collections suit is hardly his most pressing legal problem, as the complaint lays out in excruciating detail:

The legal services included, but were not limited to representing the Defendant while he was being criminally investigated by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, representing the Defendant during a pending criminal investigation in Georgia by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, representing the Defendant during a pending criminal investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith regarding the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, and representing the Defendant during a pending investigation by the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. The Defendant also directed Plaintiffs to supervise more than ten civil lawsuits filed against the Defendant that were commenced in various state and federal courts as well as participating in representing the Defendant in disciplinary proceedings regarding his law license in the District of Columbia and the First Department of New York.

Giuliani recently defaulted in a defamation suit brought by Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whom he accused of tabulating thousands of fraudulent ballots. Judge Beryl Howell issued the “death penalty sanctions” after Giuliani spent years refusing to comply with discovery, in part because he was so deeply in hock to his discovery vendor that it wouldn’t release his communications. But Giuliani was willing to admit to the allegations — sort of — rather than disclose his finances.

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It’s not the first rodeo for Costello and Davidoff either, who recently sued Bannon for failing to pay almost $500,000 in legal fees. In fact, the lawsuits against Bannon and Giuliani are more or less identical, as well as being signed by the same Davidoff associate. The New York state court granted summary judgment in favor of Davidoff and Costello in August.

Giuliani, who recently put his New York apartment on the market, would appear to be more or less judgment-proof. He’s also barred from the practice of law, and currently earns his living as a podcaster and Cameo performer. So perhaps it’s wise that Davidoff is getting its claim in before any jury starts totting up the damages in the complaints brought by Freeman/Moss, Dominion Voting Systems, its competitor Smartmatic, and Giuliani’s former lover/employee Noelle Dunphy.

According to Insider, which first flagged the suit, Giuliani and Costello have been friends for decades, going back to their time as line prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. But it seems like that friendship has now run its course.

“I can’t express how personally hurt I am by what Bob Costello has done,” Giuliani told Insider. “It’s a real shame when lawyers do things like this, and all I will say is that their bill is way in excess to anything approaching legitimate fees.”

Ah, well. Trump stiffs Rudy, Rudy stiffs Bob, it’s the circle of life … at least in MAGAworld.

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Rudy Giuliani’s ex-lawyers sue him for the $1.4 million they say he owes for defending him in election interference investigations [Insider]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.

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