Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani personally filed a defamation lawsuit against President Joe Biden on Wednesday at Merrimack County Superior Court, claiming, among other things, that Biden called him a Russian “pawn” during a 2020 debate with Donald Trump.

By linking Giuliani to Russian operatives who were trying to interfere with the election, Biden cost the former mayor millions of dollars that he would have earned from his consulting firm and law practice, he says in his lawsuit.

“What he did to me was intolerable,” Giuliani said, flanked by former New Hampshire Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien and his counsel from New York City, Lou Diamond. “He called me a Russian operative. I had a multi-million dollar consulting business and a multi-million dollar law practice and already a million dollar radio show, and all got cut and he owes me a lot of money.”

During a 20-minute press conference behind the Concord courthouse, Giuliani also accused Biden of accepting millions of dollars in bribes, and he claimed that Trump, not Biden, would have won the 2020 election if Biden had not ruined the former mayor’s reputation.

The lawsuit, held in Concord because of the Granite State’s favorable statute of limitations policy, comes at a time when Giuliani is facing his own legal troubles, including a charge of racketeering in Georgia because of his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

The New York Times also ran a story Wednesday that said Giuliani may have a drinking problem, which has piqued the interest of federal prosecutors, who wonder if Trump had disregarded information given to him by aides who said Giuliani’s drinking may be problematic.

In his defense, Giuliani recited his long record as a public servant, including the calming effect he had on New York City following the Sept. 11 attack, which earned him the title of America’s Mayor by the media.

 “If I had an alcohol problem and I could do all of that,” Giuliani said, “I should be in the Guinness Book of World Records.”

Giuliani called the story “a typical New York Times malicious lie.”

The mainstream media’s political coverage has long been a rallying cry for Republicans, who claim news organizations have traditionally treated the GOP unfairly and irresponsibly, while failing to report on the Democratic Party with a critical eye.

O’Brien said as much before Biden took the microphone, saying that Granite State residents are especially astute at “their ability to discern truth from lies,” no matter what the media reports.

“The media won’t stop (Biden), so perhaps the courts will fill in and say to politicians like Joe Biden, ‘Stop the lying. Stop hurting people. Start telling the truth.’ ”

The press conference coincided with a high-profile murder trial inside Merrimack Country Superior Court, where Logan Clegg stands accused of killing Steve and Wendy Reid of Concord.

Outside in the nearby parking lot, on an unseasonably hot day, Giuliani sweated profusely as he injected what he believed to be humor, explaining how the president’s words three years ago were hurtful and accusatory without proof, before stuttering to mock Biden for his speechmaking abilities.

“Clearly a man suffering from the beginnings of dementia,” Giuliani said. “Ask any doctor.”

The lawsuit cites information that had no connection to the alleged defamatory statements directed at Giuliani, such as the large amount of money raised by the Biden Victory Fund, the Biden Action Fund and the Biden for President committee.

It also mentions Hunter Biden’s laptop, which the suit says “contained no Russian information but rather contained the accurate, depraved and revealing entries of someone engaged in influence peddling but also in the throes of drug addiction,  thereby revealing conduct that at the very least would have cost defendant Biden the 2020 presidential election.”

Giuliani has been a strong ally of Trump’s in recent years, although reports have said that Trump is trying to distance himself from the former mayor.

Trump is scheduled to make a campaign stop in Wolfeboro on Monday.

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