Rudy Giuliani is trying to get the date of his defamation trial pushed back so he can attend the inauguration of his former client Donald Trump.

A trial to enforce Giuliani’s payment to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two poll workers in Georgia’s 2020 election whom Giuliani was found guilty of defaming, is set to begin on January 16, just a few days before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

In a letter filed Monday, Moss and Freeman’s attorney Aaron Nathan urged the judge to deny Giuliani’s request, and hit back at his implication that there would be “no harm would be no harm to the Plaintiffs by a delay of a few days.”

Giuliani’s attorney Joseph Cammarata, who stepped into the role less than a week ago after Giuliani’s previous lawyers quit, had said that Giuliani had “plans” to be “present” at the presidential inauguration. “In Defendant counsel’s words, ‘there are inauguration events planned for, I believe, January 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, 2025,’” Nathan wrote.

Nathan also argued that Giuliani’s former lawyers’ requests to withdraw from the case should be denied. The legal duo, Kenneth Caruso and David Labkowski, had argued that they were entitled to walk away from the case, citing a New York rule that grants attorneys the ability to withdraw when a client “insists upon taking action with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement.”

Giuliani owes Moss and Freeman close to $150 million for defamation, and has delayed turning over any of his assets by attempting to file for bankruptcy and claiming he didn’t know where his assets were. Last week, Giuliani turned over the first of his assets to Freeman and Moss: his luxury watches, a diamond ring, and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz.

But it seems that Giuliani is still hoping Trump will swoop in and save him from the expensive consequences of his own actions.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has agreed to postpone Donald Trump’s sentencing for his hush-money case. But while his lawyers want the felony convictions thrown out together, prosecutors aren’t willing to toss the case just yet.

The D.A.’s office wrote a letter to Judge Juan Merchan admitting that Trump probably won’t be sentenced anytime soon given his recent presidential victory. The office wants Merchan to let the felony convictions stand, while also going back to the drawing board on sentencing until the president-elect’s term is up in four years.

This case involves the $130,000 in hush-money payments that Trump had his adviser Michael Cohen make out to adult film actress Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election, buying her silence for an affair she had with Trump a decade earlier. A jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts.

This is the latest in a devastating series of legal victories for Trump, as his other three indictments—the Georgia election interference case, the federal election interference case related to January 6, and the classified documents case—have all been put on freeze, at least until he’s done with his second term as president. This is just as Trump intended, as his strategy of avoiding justice by winning the election has worked beautifully.

Trump’s lawyers still want the charges in all these cases to be dropped entirely based on the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of broad presidential immunity.

“The clock ran out,” CNN senior political analyst Elie Honig said. “We like to say no person is above the law in this country, but the fact is one person largely is, and that’s the president, because of the immunity ruling and because of the DOJ policy.”

In the hush-money trial, Trump’s sentencing has been delayed repeatedly thanks to the immunity ruling and the election. It still remains to be seen what Merchan ultimately decides after the Manhattan D.A.’s filing.

Donald Trump’s team apparently missed that Pete Hegseth, the president-elect’s choice for secretary of defense, paid off a woman accusing him of sexual assault.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Monday that while vetting Hegseth, Trump’s staff missed the payoff because it was a “private settlement.” On Saturday, Hegseth’s lawyer confirmed the payoff after being contacted by The Washington Post.

“They did do a vet, we are told,” Haberman said. “This did not show up, this issue, because it was a private settlement, according to the people who were briefed on what took place. Trump really likes Pete Hegseth. But this did introduce the thing Trump doesn’t like, which is an element of surprise and a negative headline.”

The vetting by Trump’s team, however, is skipping FBI background checks, which have historically been a part of the presidential appointment process. Instead, Trump’s team is using private companies because they are trying to speed up the process and avoid revelations that could be used by their opponents.........

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