Rudy Giuliani is providing gratis legal work for President Donald Trump to shortchange estranged wife Judith Nathan Giuliani, her lawyer said Thursday during a proceeding in their increasingly acrimonious divorce.
“Not only is he working pro bono for the president, for this individual, but it’s costing him money,” said Bernard Clair, who represents Judith. “Not only does he work for free, but all of his expenses, every time he goes down to Washington, D.C., every time he travels for the president… it comes out of his own pocket.”
“When he’s going to work for the president, he bundles, for lack of a better word, clients from his other businesses” to defray these costs, including a recent trip to Warsaw, Poland, Clair said.
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Clair said Giuliani’s work for Trump is meant to lead the court to “believe he somehow doesn’t have money.”
The lawyer added that Giuliani spent “over one million on credit cards” but “says ‘woe is me’ financially… ‘I don’t have any money left.’”
Giuliani borrowed $100,000 from Marc Mukasey, another one of Trump’s lawyers, Clair said.
Judith filed for divorce from the former New York City mayor in April 2018, after 15 years of marriage. Allegations that Giuliani has been holding out on her have been an ongoing theme of the divorce proceedings.
Clair alleged in court in November that Giuliani cried poor after she served him divorce papers. Not only did he leave a cushy white-shoe law firm gig and start no-fee legal work for Trump, he spent $286,000 on his rumored girlfriend, a New Hampshire hospital administrator named Maria Rosa Ryan, Clair had said.
“Mr. Giuliani has taken it upon himself to radically change the financial status quo that existed prior to this action,” Clair had told Justice Michael Katz, calling it “conduct that can only be characterized as SIDS... sudden income deficit syndrome.”
In the proceeding last fall, Clair claimed that Giuliani earned $7.9 million in 2016 and $9.5 million in 2017. Giuliani and Judith’s monthly expenses were about $232,000 and $238,000, respectively, Clair had also said.
Faith Miller, a lawyer representing Giuliani, insisted the ex-mayor has been trying to find other sources of income, including a podcast.
He has taken in more than $800,000 this year but it’s not enough to support their lifestyle, Miller said in this morning’s proceedings. Miller said that Giuliani was paying Judith monthly support payments of $42,000.
“Mrs. Giuliani would have Mr. Giuliani work forever to support her lifestyle,” Miller said, noting that Judith is a registered nurse but refuses to work. “There’s absolutely no reason he should feel financial pressure at this stage of his life.”
Clair alleged that Giuliani spent $50,000 for membership to a private plane service 10 days after Judith hit him with divorce papers.
Miller, meanwhile, accused Judith of taking “everything that she in her own personal opinion was hers” from one of their homes, including “the china, silverware, the pictures off the walls.”
“He walked in, the place was denuded, the place was a mess,” Miller said.
“I did not! I did not,” Judith cried out, slapping her hand against the table.
“I’m not going to tolerate an outburst,” Judge Katz warned.
Miller also claimed that Judith had neglected to pay $77,000 in co-op fees at one of their homes, resulting in a “termination notice” by Giuliani’s return in May.
The furniture and co-op fee allegations are among many petty squabbles in their made-for-tabloid split.
In March, Katz told them not to be in the same room if they ran into each other at country clubs.
“There was an issue at one of the clubs last week,” Lisa Zeiderman, one of Giuliani’s attorneys, previously told Katz. “We’re going to ask that Ms. Giuliani just keep her distance from Mr. Giuliani when they’re at clubs together and their children, as well, and not take photographs, because that’s what was happening last weekend, I’m advised, at one of the clubs.”
“He just wants to be left alone,” Zeiderman had said.
One of Judith’s lawyers had responded that Giuliani was just embarrassed to be spotted spending money on his purported girlfriend’s daughter. (Giuliani denied this after that hearing.)
Clair had told Katz that “she went into the gift shop at the club. She saw Mr. Giuliani. He got anxious and yelled at her.”
“I am tired of hearing about Mr. Giuliani’s personal life,” Katz had remarked, later saying, “Whoever is in the room first is allowed to stay in the room.”
The second person who enters the room can go to another room “and vice versa,” Katz had instructed.
Based on comments outside court, it does not appear that the drama will end prior to their scheduled divorce trial in Jan. 2020.
Giuliani, whose hair appeared darker than in the recent past, was affable as he left court, chatting with a photographer about the ins-and-outs of high-end cameras.
When asked about the loan from Mukasey, he said it was to cover taxes and that he had paid back $90,000.
He told a reporter that while Trump’s tax cuts worked out “really well” for him, “my wife has tied up all my money” in a joint account with $5 million.
Judith, who sported a blue blouse with roses on it and white pants, denied allegations that she cleaned out their decor.
“I was entitled to my family antiques,” she told reporters, claiming Rudy had kept her heirloom Christmas decorations.
