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Two former election workers in Georgia are asking for a court order to seize Rudy Giuliani’s watches, sports memorabilia, a Mercedes-Benz, his Madison Avenue apartment and other items so the disgraced former New York City mayor can begin to pay what he owes them after losing a defamation lawsuit.
Last year, Giuliani was ordered to pay mother-daughter duo Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss nearly $150 million after Donald Trump’s former attorney repeated false claims that fuelled threats against them in the volatile aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani declared bankruptcy shortly after the verdict was delivered.
But his lawyers and his bankruptcy creditors agreed to dismiss the case last month after they were left trying to figure out how he would pay tens of thousands of dollars he owes for administrative fees, whether he can actually pay any of it, and how much money he even has on hand — questions that were also at the center of the months-long bankruptcy case.
The end of his bankruptcy proceedings unfroze the multiple lawsuits against him — including the blockbuster $148 verdict that his attorneys are desperately trying to appeal.
Attorneys for Freeman and Moss asked a federal court in New York on Friday to force Giuliani to hand over his 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL500 he claims was once owned by Lauren Bacall, as well as baseball memorabilia signed by Reggie Jackson and Joe DiMaggio, and three New York Yankees World Series rings he was gifted when he was mayor.
The women are also trying to claim what Giuliani says is $2 million owed to him from Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee.
They also are asking for a diamond ring and his collection of roughly two dozen watches, the balance in his cash accounts, and interest in his Manhattan apartment, among other items.
Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment is worth an estimated $5.7 million, while his Florida condo is valued at $3.5 million, according to court records.
The women also are asking the court to appoint them as receivers of his Palm Beach condo, and to force him to answer why their receivership “should not be extended to cover all personal property” listed in the document if he does not transfer those valuables within seven days of an order to do so.
“Mr. Giuliani has proven time and again that he will never voluntarily comply with court orders, much less voluntarily satisfy Plaintiffs’ judgment,” they wrote.
In a statement to The Independent, Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman said the $148 million verdict is “objectively unreasonable” and plaintiffs are trying to “harass and intimidate” the former mayor.
“This lawsuit has always been designed to censor and bully the mayor, and to deter others from exercising their right to speak up and to speak out,” according to Goodman.
A jury trial in Washington, DC, last year determined that Giuliani repeatedly defamed Freeman and Moss with bogus statements to Georgia lawmakers and on television and podcast appearances where he suggested they manipulated the outcome of the election.
The threats and pressure campaign that followed are also evidence in a sprawling criminal case in Georgia, where Giuliani is a defendant alongside the former president, who is accused of leading a criminal enterprise to unlawfully overturn the state’s election results.
Trump is also charged with conspiring to subvert the election’s outcome in a parallel federal indictment. Giuliani is among the unindicted co-conspirators in that case, and he was separately indicted under a similar case in Arizona. He has pleaded not guilty.
