Former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani at the funeral service for NYPD police officer Wilbert Mora at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Feb. 2, 2022, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City (File Photo by: zz/NDZ/STAR MAX/IPx 2022 2/2/22 ).
The former lawyers for onetime New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani have filed a lawsuit seeking more than $1 million in allegedly unpaid fees for defending their client against criminal claims linked to Donald Trump, as well as almost a dozen civil matters.
Longtime Giuliani attorney Robert Costello and the law firm of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP (DHC), which has represented Giuliani since 2019, filed the lawsuit in New York state court on Monday. The breach of contract complaint, filed in Manhattan, says that Giuliani owes nearly $1.4 million in fees to the firm.
“This action simply seeks payment of an outstanding bill for legal services rendered by Plaintiffs in the amount of $1,360,196.10,” the complaint says. The firm also wants a hearing to determine “reasonable attorneys’ fees Plaintiffs are contractually entitled to” in connection with having to file the lawsuit in the first place.
From around November 2019 through July 2023, the complaint says, the firm provided legal services to Giuliani. Those services ran the gamut from criminal investigations regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol attack — which stemmed from disproven conspiracy theories pushed by Trump, Giuliani, and an array of supporters that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election due to voter fraud — to defending Giuliani against almost a dozen civil claims.
“The legal services included, but were not limited to representing the Defendant while he was being criminally investigated by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, representing the Defendant during a pending criminal investigation in Georgia by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, representing the Defendant during a pending criminal investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith regarding the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, and representing the Defendant during a pending investigation by the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” the complaint says. “The Defendant also directed Plaintiffs to supervise more than ten civil lawsuits filed against the Defendant that were commenced in various state and federal courts as well as participating in representing the Defendant in disciplinary proceedings regarding his law license in the District of Columbia and the First Department of New York.”
All in all, Giuliani allegedly racked up nearly $1.58 million in fees and expenses.
“Defendant has paid only $214,000 of the total bill,” the complaint says. The most recent payment was for $10,000 on Sept. 14.
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The lawsuit says that by signing a retainer agreement with the firm, Giuliani agreed to pay for the legal services as performed, and notes that Giuliani “never raised any objection regarding the correctness of the invoices, the amount billed or that they were issued by DHC” over the years.
That retainer agreement also provides that “in the event Plaintiffs commence a legal proceeding in order to recover legal fees and disbursements, Plaintiffs shall be awarded their reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees,” the complaint says.
In a statement, Giuliani said that he was “personally hurt” by the lawsuit.
“It’s a real shame when lawyers do things like this, and all I will say is that their bill is way in excess to anything approaching legitimate fees,” the statement said.
Giuliani has faced a nearly nonstop barrage of legal woes in connection with his defense of the former president, who himself is facing criminal charges in four separate jurisdictions. The man previously known as “America’s Mayor” was indicted alongside Trump in Georgia on racketeering charges in connection with efforts to subvert the 2020 election. He has all but admitted to making defamatory statements about Georgia election volunteers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, although he has essentially refused to participate in that lawsuit in any meaningful way. He is also being sued by voting machine company Smartmatic for defamation, and has been accused of rape and sexual abuse.
Read the lawsuit, via Politico, here.
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