Friend has a cabin in a rabun gap, beautiful area. Not where I’d be shopping for my lawyers however…
Rudy Giuliani, Hard Up for Cash, Lands a New Georgia Lawyer
Allyn Stockton says he will be paid and won’t make any plea deals for former Trump attorney and New York mayor
Mariah Timms
“I’ve been asked, have you had a high-profile case like this before? And, well, I don’t know that anybody has,” Stockton said in an interview.
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Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and lawyer for former President Donald Trump, was indicted in August alongside Trump and 17 other co-defendants in the Georgia racketeering case alleging a criminal scheme to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
Four of Giuliani’s co-defendants since have taken plea deals, agreeing to testify against others in the case in exchange for no-jail sentences. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty, as have the remaining 13 defendants, including Trump.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was indicted alongside Donald Trump and 17 others in the Georgia case alleging a criminal scheme to subvert the 2020 election. Photo: LEAH MILLIS/REUTERS
Meanwhile, Giuliani’s ability to pay for legal representation has come into question. In early August one of his lawyers, Joseph Sibley, said in a court filing that his client was having “financial difficulties,” and in September Giuliani’s longtime lawyer Robert Costello sued him in New York, claiming roughly $1.36 million in unpaid legal fees.
On Sept. 18, Georgia lawyer David Wolfe informed the court he would no longer represent Giuliani. Wolfe didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for Giuliani didn’t respond to a request for comment. In September Giuliani said he was “personally hurt” by Costello’s lawsuit, adding the bill was “way in excess to anything approaching legitimate fees.”
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Asked if he was being paid, Stockton, Giuliani’s new lawyer, said: “I am. We have an arrangement that I’m satisfied with, that they’re satisfied with.”
Stockton said he has no intention of taking a plea deal on behalf of his high-profile client.
“No offer has been sought, nor is one expected,” he said.
Stockton, 55 years old, has a country lawyer’s resume. In nearly 30 years as a trial lawyer in Georgia, he has represented death-row inmates and taken on cases ranging from DUI and traffic tickets to murder charges. A graduate of Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, he has served as the county attorney for Rabun County, where he lives and works, for 23 years.
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Rabun County, population 16,883, lies where Georgia meets both Carolinas—nestled between national forests at the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains.
Three-quarters of registered voters in the county’s sole precinct cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election, and 78% of them voted for Trump. On Monday, a large Trump 2024 banner hung in Clayton, the county seat.
It was in the wooded mountains along the state line that a joint operation involving state and federal wildlife agencies ran “Operation Something Bruin” from 2009 to 2013 to break up an alleged illegal bear-hunting ring across western North Carolina and northern Georgia.
L. Allyn Stockton Jr. has worked for nearly three decades as a trial lawyer in Georgia. Photo: L. Allyn Stockton Jr.
It became a debacle. Overtime and operational costs stacked up, undercover officers killed several bears themselves, and dozens of trackers, hunt organizers and barely connected locals were arrested on state and federal charges.
Eventually, Mark Meadows, then a Republican House member for North Carolina, convened a congressional hearing into claims of entrapment and overreach. Meadows, who was Trump’s last White House chief of staff, has been charged alongside Giuliani and Trump in the Fulton County racketeering case and has also pleaded not guilty.
Stockton persuaded a jury to lower several clients’ felony charges to misdemeanor convictions that carried no prison time in the bear-hunting case. He testified before the North Carolina congressman in 2015 and submitted a lengthy written statement on their behalf, arguing the government overcharged the defendants and overstepped its authority in the yearslong sting.
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Today, Stockton only hesitatingly calls himself a Republican. He followed in his father’s footsteps to an appointment on the Rabun County school board this year, and he plans to run to keep the seat next year. He said he hopes to do right by the four generations of his family that have attended district schools so far.
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“If I identify politically, it would be as a Republican, but there have been occasions when I have voted for Democrats. It’s not infrequent,” he said.
Stockton said while he was still becoming acquainted with the case, he thought the racketeering charges against his client and others are on shaky ground.
“It’s not going to be a whodunit,” he said. “There’s recordings of what they’re accusing them of doing, it’s just going to be whether or not that constitutes a crime. Which, everything I’ve reviewed so far, I just don’t believe it does.”
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The trial will be a huge and cumbersome undertaking, Stockton said, as it could feature more than a dozen defense lawyers cross-examining every witness. That demanding schedule is what prompted Giuliani’s previous representation to step away, according to Stockton.
A trial date has yet to be set for Giuliani, Trump and the other remaining defendants; Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis last week asked the judge to set one for Aug. 5, 2024, and her office said the trial could last at least four months.
Stepping into a role that will draw scrutiny, Stockton said he intends to keep the government accountable.
“I kind of feel like when John Adams defended the British soldiers,” he said. “Everybody gets a defense, and the government is not always right.”
—Cameron McWhirter contributed to this article.
Write to Mariah Timms at
[email protected]
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