Two Georgia election officials are working hard to recover a $146 million defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani, with the former New York mayor under investigation amid a series of financial problems.
After the 2020 election, Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, who were at the center of Mr. Giuliani's baseless mass voter fraud accusations, told a federal judge in New York that two of his properties, his Mercedes-Benz and They asked him to hand over his luxury watch, some of his bank accounts, and some of his bank accounts. more. Both parties are scheduled to appear in court again later this month.
Mr. Giuliani has argued that many of the assets should not yet be liquidated because they have “certain public interest,” such as watches given to him by two foreign heads of state after the 9/11 attacks.
Meanwhile, Giuliani's son Andrew intervened in the legal battle, arguing that the election official was not entitled to three Yankee World Series rings because his father gave them to him in 2018. I am doing it.
A dispute has also erupted over Giuliani's past claims that the Trump campaign owes him $2 million in unpaid legal fees for his work after the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Freeman and Mr. Moss now want to pursue their claims, but Mr. Giuliani insists they must wait until after the November election to avoid a “media frenzy.”
A series of disputes over the former New York mayor's assets mark the latest stage in a bitter battle between him and two Georgia election officials.
In December, a Washington, D.C., jury awarded Giuliani $148,000 to a mother and daughter for ruining their lives by falsely claiming he was involved in mass voter fraud while working in Atlanta on Election Day 2020. ordered to pay $1,000. The amount was later adjusted. Approximately $146 million plus interest.
Mr. Giuliani has avoided paying this amount for several months. He rushed to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the judgment was automatically frozen, but a judge later kicked Giuliani out of the bankruptcy system for failing to provide financial transparency.
Now Freeman and Moss are pounced on. In August, they filed a motion to enforce the judgment in federal court in New York.
Liberal U.S. District Judge Louis Lehman, who was appointed to the court by President Trump in 2018 as part of a bipartisan agreement at the time, is close to deciding whether to turn over Mr. Giuliani's assets estimated at $10.6 million in bankruptcy. are.
“The court intends to dispose of this matter without delay, consistent with the judgment enforcement nature of the proceeding,” Lehman wrote in a brief order late last month.
Liman has scheduled a status conference for Oct. 28, when both parties will return to court to discuss next steps. It was originally scheduled for Thursday, but the judge postponed it at the request of one of the elections board's lawyers to take time off for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Meanwhile, elections Workers announced last week that they had settled a separate defamation lawsuit. against Gateway Pundit, a right-wing website that also went bankrupt. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but on Saturday the site posted an editor's note calling it “fair and reasonable.”
“Georgia officials have concluded that there was no widespread voter fraud by election workers who counted ballots at State Farm Arena in November 2020. “This indicates that Moss did not engage in any ballot fraud or criminal misconduct while working at State Farm Arena on election night,” the memo said.
Continuing their fight against Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Freeman and Mr. Moss are currently seeking a judgment ordering Mr. Giuliani to turn over his non-exempt assets within a week or be placed in receivership and sent to the Board of Elections. will immediately authorize the commencement of liquidation.
“It is clear that any enforcement device that relies on minimal participation from the judgment debtor will be run aground by Mr. Giuliani's demonstrated strategy of insubordination and delay,” their lawyers wrote in a court filing. are.
As part of their demands, they effectively accused Giuliani of filing for bankruptcy, saying the former president owed $2 million in unpaid legal fees for his activities after the 2020 election. demanded the right to investigate the allegations. It was the very job that drowned Mr. Giuliani in legal trials. trouble.
Last week, Giuliani's lawyer Kenneth Caruso called the case merely an “alleged allegation” against the Trump campaign and asked a judge to hold it until after the presidential election.
“Otherwise, the plaintiffs are or could be using this transfer for illicit political (or at least collateral) purposes, and the defendants are currently suing candidate Trump in some way.” , creating a confusing and inaccurate impression, thereby creating a collateral and unnecessary media frenzy,” Caruso wrote in a court filing.
The former mayor also expressed opposition to the sale of various watches said to have been gifts from foreign heads of state, as well as memorabilia autographed by famous Yankees players Reggie Jackson and Joe DiMaggio. There is. Giuliani's lawyer described Giuliani's 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL-500 as a “collectible” and said it was previously owned by actress Lauren Bacall.
Mr. Giuliani is not fighting to have the property handed over, but it would bar election officials from selling the property until his appeal of a huge defamation judgment is resolved by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. I am asking Mr. Lehman to do the same.
Mr. Giuliani filed a written argument in the D.C. Circuit last week that said the nine-figure sum was excessive and that election officials had not proven actual malice, a necessary element for defamation. focused on the claim.
“Even if this type of unique property were sold and monetized, compensation could never be sufficient if the D.C. Circuit reverses the decision,” Caruso said in a statement prior to an upcoming hearing. I sent a letter to Mr.
Regarding two of his properties, Mr. Giuliani agreed to allow campaign officials to take over the sale of his New York City apartment. It had been on the market for more than a year, but after cutting the price by another $525,000 late last month, Mr. Lehman ordered Mr. Giuliani to temporarily delist it.
Meanwhile, Mr. Giuliani's lawyers are expected to respond by Wednesday to efforts by election officials to take over his Palm Beach apartment. The question is whether the city can exempt the mayor-turned-Trump lawyer by declaring it his principal residence.
“Mr. Giuliani's own public internet broadcasts have shown that since he claimed to establish permanent residence in the Palm Beach condominium, he has not actually lived there, and that he has called it ' “It is not certain that the property was maintained as a 'homestead,'” the elections board's lawyers wrote.
“The stakes are very high. An 80-year-old man is at risk of losing his home,” Giuliani's lawyers said in a recent court filing.
Updated at 4:46 PM ET.
