Rudy Giuliani’s latest courtroom battle doesn’t involve elections or indictments—it’s about the bill. A New York judge has ruled that the former mayor of New York City must pay $1.36 million plus interest to his one-time defense team, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, for years of unpaid legal work.
The law firm sued Giuliani back in 2023, claiming he had only chipped in $214,000 toward nearly $1.6 million worth of services provided between late 2019 and mid-2023. Judge Arthur Engoron sided with the firm, making clear that Giuliani’s attempts to sidestep the fees wouldn’t hold.
The firm represented him through a minefield of investigations and scandals—federal and state probes into his role as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, inquiries into his dealings in Ukraine, the congressional January 6th investigation, as well as various civil lawsuits and disciplinary proceedings.
Giuliani had argued he never signed on to the firm’s billing rates, insisting his arrangement was solely with partner Robert Costello and that he wasn’t receiving monthly invoices. The court didn’t buy it.
Once hailed as “America’s Mayor,” Giuliani now faces mounting financial and legal woes. His law licenses in New York and Washington have been revoked over his false election fraud claims. He recently settled with two Georgia election workers who won a staggering $148 million defamation judgment against him, and he still faces a billion-dollar lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems. On top of that, he has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona tied to his efforts to undo Trump’s 2020 election loss.
Despite the mountain of legal troubles, Trump recently announced plans to honor Giuliani with the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian award in the country.
