Judge signals that contempt hearing for Rudy Giuliani over his assets might not go well for him

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge is signaling that Rudy Giuliani’s contempt hearing next Friday might not end so well for the former New York City mayor and onetime personal lawyer for President-elect Donald Trump as two Georgia election poll workers try to collect a $148 million defamation award they won against him.

Judge Lewis J. Liman in Manhattan issued an order Friday in which he was dismissive of what he described as attempts by Giuliani and his lawyer to dodge providing information to the election workers' lawyers.

And he said the litigants should be ready at the contempt hearing to explain why he should not grant a request by lawyers for the two election workers that he make adverse inferences from evidence in the case that would put Giuliani's Palm Beach, Florida, condominium in danger of being surrendered to satisfy the defamation award.

The judge also said he may rule on the contempt request at the hearing.

Giuliani has maintained that the Palm Beach property is his personal residence now and should be shielded from the judgment. He faces a Jan. 16 trial before Liman over the disposition of his Florida residence and World Series rings.

Lawyers for the election workers filed the contempt request after saying Giuliani had failed to turn over a lease to his Manhattan apartment, a Mercedes, various watches and jewelry, a signed Joe DiMaggio shirt and other baseball momentos. The judge ordered Giuliani to turn over the items in October.

Giuliani’s lawyers have predicted that Giuliani will eventually win custody of the items on appeal. A request for comment was sent to a lawyer for Giuliani, who was supposed to be deposed on Friday.

The contempt hearing follows a contentious November hearing in which Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, became angry at the judge and said Liman was treating him unfairly.

Giuliani was found liable last year for defaming the two Georgia poll workers by falsely accusing them of tampering with ballots during the 2020 presidential election.

The women said they faced death threats after Giuliani falsely claimed they sneaked in ballots in suitcases, counted ballots multiple times and tampered with voting machines.

FILE - Rudy Giuliani speaks outside the Fulton County jail in Atlanta, on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

FILE - Rudy Giuliani speaks to reporters as he leaves the federal courthouse in New York, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

LONDON (AP) — Olivia Hussey, the actor who starred as a teenage Juliet in the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” has died, her family said on social media Saturday. She was 73.

Hussey died on Friday, “peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones,” a statement posted to her Instagram account said.

Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of the William Shakespeare tragedy after spotting her onstage in the play “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," which also starred Vanessa Redgrave.

“Romeo and Juliet” won two Oscars and Hussey won a Golden Globe for best new actress for her part as Juliet, opposite British actor Leonard Whiting, who was 16 at the time.

Decades later Hussey and Whiting brought a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over nude scenes in the film.

They alleged that they were initially told they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in a bedroom scene, but on the day of the shoot Zeffirelli told the pair they would wear only body makeup and that the camera would be positioned in a way that would not show nudity. They alleged they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge.

The case was dismissed by a Los Angeles County judge in 2023, who found their depiction could not be considered child pornography and the pair filed their claim too late.

Hussey was born on April 17, 1951, in Bueno Aires, Argentina, and moved to London as a child.

She also starred as Mary, mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television series “Jesus of Nazareth," and in the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile.”

She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, her three children and a grandson.

FILE - Leonard Whiting, left, and Olivia Hussey arrive at the screening of "The Producers" at the 2018 TCM Classic Film Festival Opening Night at the TCL Chinese Theatre on April 26, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Actress Olivia Hussey smiles as she appears at the Japan premiere of her latest film "Mother Teresa of Calcutta" in Tokyo Wednesday, June 15, 2005. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara, File)

FILE - "Romeo and Juliette" movie director Franco Zeffirelli, left, actors Olivia Hussey, center, and Leonard Whiting are seen after the Parisian premiere of the film in Paris on Sept. 25, 1968. (AP Photo/Eustache Cardenas, File)