It seems likely that, at some point soon, Rudy Giuliani will go a whole week without confronting a series of unflattering headlines. Unfortunately for the former New York City mayor, that week has not yet arrived.
Rolling Stone reported on the Republican lawyer’s latest troubles.
Rudy Giuliani has been dumped by yet another attorney. On Wednesday morning, Brian Tevis filed a motion to the Fulton County Superior Court to withdraw as counsel for the former mayor of New York City who is now an indicted co-defendant in Georgia’s election interference case against Donald Trump. Tevis had hinted shortly after Giuliani’s Georgia arraignment in August that he was unsure if he would continue to defend Giuliani throughout the entirety of his trial.
It’s worth emphasizing that Tevis’ motion to withdraw from the case needs to be approved by the judge in the case, though as MSNBC’s Alex Wagner noted on last night’s show, the fact that the lawyer is making the effort adds to the list of Giuliani’s troubles.
And what a list it is. In fact, news consumers would be forgiven for thinking that they’ve already seen this report, because a different member of Giuliani’s legal team, David Wolfe, also filed notice to withdraw from the case.
Complicating matters, The New York Times also reported this week that special counsel Jack Smith’s office has questioned witnesses about Giuliani’s alcohol consumption as he was advising Donald Trump, “including on election night.”
The same report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added, “Mr. Smith’s investigators have also asked about Mr. Trump’s level of awareness of his lawyer’s drinking as they worked to overturn the election and prevent Joseph R. Biden Jr. from being certified as the 2020 winner at almost any cost.”
Circling back to our earlier coverage, this comes just one week after Hunter Biden sued the former mayor and his lawyer, accusing them of violating state and federal fraud laws “in their efforts to disseminate potentially damaging material.”
That news came against a backdrop of groping allegations raised by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, whose new book is now available.
Those claims, which Giuliani denied, came just days before some of his former lawyers sued him, claiming that the former mayor owes them $1.36 million in unpaid legal fees.
Those developments came just three weeks after NBC News reported that a federal judge ruled that Giuliani defamed former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, and is liable for damages after he failed to comply with discovery obligations in their defamation lawsuit.
My MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin added that there will still be a trial later this year, but the question at trial “won’t be whether he’s liable but how much he has to pay the plaintiffs.”
Two weeks before that, Giuliani was indicted in Georgia as part of the broader case related to Team Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
A month earlier, a Washington, D.C.-based bar discipline committee concluded that Giuliani should be disbarred for “frivolous” and “destructive” efforts to derail the 2020 election.
For good measure, let’s also not forget that Giuliani is also facing a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.
It’s possible that the Republican lawyer is pondering his options right now, wondering if there’s a way out of these cascading messes. But as we discussed last week, a list like this is not easily overcome.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
