Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared in a New York court on Monday to fight a residency challenge as he seeks to get on the state’s ballot as an independent candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
The Associated Press reported that Kennedy appeared in a civil court in Albany, New York, to fight against a lawsuit that alleges he falsely claimed New York as his residence. According to state election law, the presiding judge will decide the case without a jury.
The lawsuit contends that Kennedy’s nominating petition falsely claimed his residence was in New York City’s northern suburbs while he has actually been living in Los Angeles since his 2014 marriage to Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines.
The AP reported that the case against Kennedy was brought by Clear Choice PAC, a group formed earlier this year by allies of President Joe Biden.
During the trial on Monday, a Kennedy friend named David Michaelis took the stand and testified Kennedy was a frequent guest at his home in Westchester County from 2014 to 2017. According to the AP, Michaelis received a document while testifying which showed Kennedy said that Michaelis had asked him to move out of his house in March 2023 over his support for Biden.
However, Michaelis called the statement “fiction” and said Kennedy never lived in his home.
In his New York ballot petition, Kennedy lists his residence in the state as a home belonging to a different friend in Katonah, a wealthy suburb in Westchester County. Kennedy claims he moved there after being asked to vacate Michaelis’ residence.
However, the lawsuit argues that Kennedy “has no meaningful or continuous connections to the property” in Katonah and has spent “vanishingly little time, if any,” at the location.
“Moreover, the evidence will show that Kennedy’s wife and children live in California, along with his three dogs, two ravens, an emu and his personal belongings,” the lawsuit says, according to the AP.
In a Monday statement, Kennedy’s attorney, William F. Savino of Woods Oviatt Gilman, said: “The home at 84 Croton Lake Road in Katonah, New York, is Mr. Kennedy’s official address.”
“He receives mail there. His driver’s license and automobile are registered there. His voting registration, and fishing, and falconry licenses are from New York. His law office is in New York. He pays taxes to New York State,” Savino said in the statement. “New York has been his residence continuously since 1964, and Mr. Kennedy has deep ties to it. He even keeps his beloved falcons in New York State. He has never claimed any other state as a residency. He intends to move back to New York as soon as his wife retires from acting.”
Earlier on Monday, Kennedy made headlines after sharing a video on X (formerly Twitter) in which he said that he was behind the dumping of a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park.
The story originally made headlines in 2014 when a woman found the dead cub while walking her dog. On Sunday, Kennedy shed new light on the case, admitting it was he who left the cub there. He gave an account of the events in a video posted to X, ahead of an upcoming article in The New Yorker that he said was going to break the story.
Newsweek was directed to the statement from Savino after reaching out to Kennedy’s campaign via email for comment.
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