Judge Orders Giuliani to Forfeit Millions in Assets to Election Workers He Defamed
“The onetime personal attorney to former President Donald J. Trump has seven days to turn over his Manhattan apartment, a vintage Mercedes-Benz and other possessions.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to turn over most of his possessions and available cash to a receivership controlled by the two Georgia election workers he defamed after the last presidential election.
Mr. Giuliani, 80, has seven days to make the transfer, which includes his New York apartment and his vintage Mercedes-Benz, once owned by the actress Lauren Bacall. The judge also ordered him to turn over certain pieces of furniture, his television, sports memorabilia, jewelry and 26 watches, including one that Mr. Giuliani said his grandfather gave him.
“The watch may be distinctive to defendant as an item of sentimental value, but it is not distinctive to the law,” Judge Lewis J. Liman of Federal District Court in Manhattan wrote in the order issued on Tuesday. For now, Mr. Giuliani’s son, Andrew, can hold on to his father’s Yankee World Series rings while lawyers look into whether they were indeed a gift from father to son, as Andrew Giuliani has told the court.
Once the transfers are made, the two election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, can begin selling the assets and putting the proceeds toward the more than $148 million a federal jury determined he owes them. Judge Liman also said Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss could sue former President Donald J. Trump for the $2 million he owes Mr. Giuliani in unpaid legal bills.
Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss have been waiting nearly a year to be paid for the damage to their reputations caused by Mr. Giuliani, a onetime personal lawyer to Mr. Trump and mayor of New York. Mr. Giuliani has reported about $10 million in assets.
After the 2020 election, Mr. Giuliani spread false statements that the women tried to steal the election from Mr. Trump. The accusations circulated swiftly across social media and led to violent threats against the women and their families.
“Our clients will finally begin to receive some of the compensation to which they are entitled for Giuliani’s actions,” said one of their lawyers, Aaron Nathan of Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
In a statement Tuesday evening, lawyers representing Mr. Giuliani said Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss would have to return the assets if Mr. Giuliani successfully appealed the $148 million judgment.
“Stay tuned,” the lawyers, Kenneth Caruso and David Labkowski, wrote in an email. “When the judgment is reversed in the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., these plaintiffs will be required to return all this property to Mr. Giuliani.”
But unless Mr. Giuliani’s appeal results in the judgment being vacated or reduced to less than $10 million — which is what his assets are worth — it is not likely that Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss would have to return anything.
The women filed a defamation suit against Mr. Giuliani in December 2021. Over the course of two years, Mr. Giuliani refused to respond to discovery requests about his businesses and earnings. He was so uncooperative that the judge overseeing the case, Beryl A. Howell, ruled that he was liable for defaming the two women. A federal jury in Washington decided he owed them $148 million.
The judgment prompted Mr. Giuliani to file for bankruptcy last December. His case was dismissed from bankruptcy court eight months later because he refused to comply with basic reporting procedures.
“Our clients have been around the block with Mr. Giuliani quite a lot,” Mr. Nathan said during a Sept. 27 hearing.
If Mr. Giuliani does not comply with Judge Liman’s seven-day order, he could face being held in contempt of court, which could result in fines or even jail time.
The order covers about $6.5 million worth of assets, excluding the value of his condo in Palm Beach, Fla.
Mr. Giuliani faces a January trial in Manhattan over whether he can claim that the Florida condo is his primary residence and therefore not eligible to be seized by his creditors under Florida law. But lawyers for Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss say that is not enough under Florida law to establish primary residency. Judge Liman, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, said Mr. Giuliani was not allowed to do anything that would downgrade the value of the Palm Beach condo in the meantime.
If the case goes to trial, it will put Mr. Giuliani in the defendant’s seat in a district he once oversaw as a U.S. attorney in the 1980s.
Since the 2020 election, Mr. Giuliani has lost his licenses to practice law in New York and Washington, D.C. He also faces criminal trials in Arizona and Georgiarelated to his efforts to keep Mr. Trump in office.
Eileen Sullivan covers breaking news, the Justice Department, the trials against Donald J. Trump and the Biden administration. More about Eileen Sullivan“
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