Giuliani faces demand for $1.36 million in lawyer fees following court ruling
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and attorney for former President Donald Trump, has been ordered by a judge to pay $1.36 million in legal fees. The ruling was made in a lawsuit brought by lawyer Robert Costello and the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP.
Giuliani represented Trump from November 2019 to July 2023, handling investigations, civil lawsuits, and disciplinary proceedings. During this period, Costello and Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP were among the legal teams working for Giuliani.
According to the lawsuit, Giuliani breached a retainer agreement by failing to pay invoices in full in a timely fashion. The lawsuit accused him of paying only a fraction of nearly $1.6 million in legal fees. Giuliani paid Costello and the law firm $214,000, leaving a $1.36 million tab.
Judge Arthur Engoron, who made the ruling, is the same judge who last year ordered Trump to pay a massive civil penalty for fraud. Engoron is a Democrat.
The legal fees are for investigations into Giuliani's efforts to overturn President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss. Giuliani was criminally charged in Georgia and Arizona in connection with these efforts to undo Trump's loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
In recent years, Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy. He sustained a fractured vertebra and other injuries in a car crash in New Hampshire last month. His spokesperson has stated that he will appeal the ruling.
Interestingly, Trump awarded Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, soon after the car crash. Trump's lawyers called Costello as a witness at the president's hush money criminal trial last year. Giuliani was disbarred in New York and Washington for repeatedly making false statements about the 2020 election.
In a separate development, Giuliani has been threatened with jail for failing to pay money owed to his third ex-wife, Judith. He reached an undisclosed settlement to keep his homes and belongings, including prized World Series rings, after he was ordered to pay $148 million to two former Georgia elections workers he defamed.
In a positive note, Costello was hired as a lawyer for Republican-controlled Nassau County on Long Island in September 2024, after leaving Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP. The current lawyers representing Robert Costello and Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP in the case against Rudy Giuliani are not publicly disclosed.
The fine for Trump ballooned to more than $500 million with interest, but an appeals court overturned it last month. This news article will be updated as more information becomes available.
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