As former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is engulfed by legal troubles even his own donors are now turning their backs on him as he faces mounting costs associated with defending himself in multiple trials.
With the former attorney to former President Donald J. Trump suffering a major defeat in court this week in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers, some of his top financial backers are shunning him as his political enemies continue to ratchet up the pressure.
“I wouldn’t give him a nickel,” billionaire investor Leon Cooperman told CNBC in a recent telephone interview.
“I’m very negative on Donald Trump. It’s an American tragedy. He was ‘America’s mayor.’ He did a great job. And like everybody else who gets involved with Trump, it turns to s**t,” said Cooperman who according to federal election records donated $2,300 to Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Another former Giuliani donor, former NASCAR CEO Brian France who donated $9,200 to his failed White House run said that he doesn’t plan on helping the former Big Apple mayor.
“I was a major supporter of Rudy in 2008 and at other times. I’m not sure what happen[ed] but I miss the old Rudy. I’m wishing him well,” he said in an email, according to CNBC.
Billionaire Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone also has no plans to donate to the embattled Giuliani’s legal defense fund, according to a personal assistant, the outlet reported. FEC records show that Langone gave $4,600 to his 2008 campaign.
“Rudy should have a statue built in his honor for saving the city, but instead he is a clown figure amongst the donor class and needs to run begging for money to pay for a legal defense in which he tried to overturn an election,” an anonymous New York GOP fundraiser “with clients that had close allegiances to Giuliani” told the outlet in a text message.
Others were more supportive of the former mayor of Gotham.
“I probably will,” said John Catsimatidis of helping out with legal expenses. The billionaire owns the New York radio station WABC which employs Giuliani and his son.
“We pay him a lot of money to work for WABC,” Catsimatidis said, according to CNBC. “I think people should help Rudy Giuliani. The people who supported him in the past and liked him, those people should help him.”
Giuliani’s legal and financial woes took another hit this week when an Obama-appointed D.C. judge issued a default judgment against him, saying that the former mayor is liable in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers whom he accused of tampering with ballots during the tallying of the count in the 2020 presidential election.
U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Giuliani violated her orders to turn over information to election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea’ ArShaye Moss as part of their lawsuit.
“Just as taking shortcuts to win an election carries risks — even potential criminal liability — bypassing the discovery process carries serious sanctions,” Howell wrote in a blistering 57-page ruling. The case will now move to trial to determine the amount of “punitive” damages that he will be made to pay.
Judge Howell had previously ordered Giuliani to pay $90,000 to the workers’ legal expenses “due to what she found was noncompliance with her earlier discovery orders,” according to Politico. She also ordered him and his businesses to pay an additional amount of around $43,000 in the Wednesday ruling. The amounts are separate from any damages that a jury would award the election workers.
As Giuliani’s enemies turn the legal pressure on, even his own donors seem too scared to support him anymore. These dangerous attacks against him are evidently working to isolate him politically.
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