UPDATE (Nov. 5, 2024, 4:55 p.m. E.T.): Lawyers for Freeman and Moss filed a letter with the court Tuesday noting reports of Giuliani appearing in the Mercedes and accusing him of “flouting his obligations under the Court’s Turnover and Receivership Order.”
Late last month, two former Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, were literally given the keys to a kingdom, albeit a far diminished one. Freeman and Moss, the victims of a false story about voting fraud at Atlanta’s State Farm Center in the 2020 presidential election, secured a $148 million judgment against former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani for defaming them and causing them emotional distress.
Freeman and Moss secured a $148 million judgment against Rudy Giuliani for defaming them and causing them emotional distress.
But since the women won that verdict just under a year ago, Giuliani has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with them and has tried various gambits to avoid paying them. (The verdict is also currently on appeal to a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.) First, Giuliani declared personal bankruptcy, which effectively froze the ability of the mother and daughter to recover any of his assets. Months later, a New York bankruptcy judge dismissed Giuliani’s bankruptcy, finding that he was a “recalcitrant debtor” who had concealed assets and failed to cooperate in his own proceeding.
Freeman and Moss then filed an action against Giuliani in New York federal court, seeking to have his assets turned over to them in a receivership — and late last month, federal Judge Lewis Liman ordered Giuliani to turn over most of his assets, his multi-million dollar Manhattan condominium, and even a 1980s Mercedes Benz convertible once owned by legendary actress Lauren Bacall to the women. That judge also ordered Giuliani to hand over control of those assets within seven days.
But when the women’s lawyers were given keys to Giuliani’s condo last week, they found it “substantially empty;” through further correspondence with Giuliani’s lawyers, they then learned that many of Giuliani’s valuables, which they expected to find in the apartment itself, had been transferred to storage in Long Island and that the Mercedes was already in Florida. And as the women’s lawyers represented to the judge, Giuliani still has not transferred any property to them.
That prompted Liman to order an in-person hearing Thursday, Nov. 7, and to specifically order Giuliani to attend.
A spokesperson for Giuliani, Ted Goodman, told NBC News Tuesday, “Opposing counsel, acting either negligently or deliberately in a deceptive manner, are simply attempting to further bully and intimidate Mayor Giuliani until he is rendered penniless and homeless. This is just another way that they’ve weaponized our once-sacred justice system. It should concern each and every American. Mayor Giuliani has made available his property and possessions as ordered. A few items were put into storage over the course of the past year, and anything else removed was related to his two livestream programs that stream each and every weeknight across his social media platforms.” It does not seem that Giuliani is as blameless as Goodman insists. Still, it does not seem that Giuliani is as blameless as Goodman insists. Rudy being Rudy, he just can’t help himself. He now reportedly lives in a condo in Palm Beach, which he is trying to prevent Freeman and Moss from seizing by claiming it as his primary residence under Florida’s “homestead” law. And Tuesday morning, Giuliani was driven in to Trump’s polling station as a passenger in the Mercedes the judge ordered him to hand over to Freeman and Moss by Oct. 29. Lawyers for Freeman and Moss declined to comment on this development. In the meantime, Giuliani’s lawyers have represented to the court that he cannot be in New York Thursday because he is contractually committed to a radio broadcast, his equipment is in Florida, and his radio work is his sole source of “earned income.” The court denied Giuliani’s request for failing to show any “good cause,” and reiterated that he must appear personally. Whatever the outcome of Tuesday’s election, something tells me that based on what he said after the last election and how he continues to flout the law, Thursday is going to be a rough day for Giuliani.
Lisa Rubin is an MS NOW legal correspondent and a former litigator. Previously, she was the off-air legal analyst for “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “Alex Wagner Tonight.”
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