A pair of election workers Rudy Giuliani defamed are preparing to obtain a long list of valuables, including a 1980 Mercedes Benz once owned by Lauren Bacall, and his Manhattan penthouse, after a federal judge ordered the disbarred former mayor to turn over his property last week.
Giuliani’s attorneys returned to court on Monday as he faces an imminent deadline for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss to seize assets that they plan to sell to make up for the nearly $150 million he owes for defaming them in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, when he falsely accused them of manipulating ballots and election results in Georgia.
Giuliani did not appear at Monday’s hearing in Manhattan. On Sunday night, he spoke to nearly 20,000 people in Madison Square Garden to boost Donald Trump, his former client, whose spurious efforts to reverse his 2020 loss has landed Giuliani in courtroom battles of his own across the country.
The former mayor plans to maintain his residence in Palm Beach, Florida, but he is barred by the court from doing anything to diminish its value as District Judge Lewis Liman determines whether his creditors can seize it.
The Florida condo is valued at roughly $3.5 million, according to The Independent’s review of his assets. But 2024 sales of other units in the same complex have sold for nearly $4 million and higher.
Where he makes his primary residence will be a deciding factor for the court in the coming weeks. If he cannot claim that his Florida condo was his primary home before later this summer, he could lose it, CNN reported.
“Better have him answer the question now,” Aaron Nathan, an attorney for Freeman and Moss, told the judge. “It’s an answer he presumably knows, if what he says is true.”
Earlier this year, his lawyers said Giuliani would “be forced to incur expenses for alternative housing” if he loses the condo. “Surely the Committee does not intend [Giuliani] to join the ranks of the homeless?” they argued.
Plaintiffs believe Giuliani’s condo is primarily a vacation home, and that he has instead spent time in New Hampshire and New York, with trips this year to the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin and to Paris for the summer Olympics, rather than live in Florida.
Giuliani was found guilty of defamation last year, and he promptly filed bankruptcy.
That bankruptcy case was dismissed earlier this year after all parties agreed that the courts remain the best options to duke out what is owed over his long list of lawsuits.
Last week, Giuliani was ordered to prepare for his property to be in receivership — including cash from his checking accounts, signed New York Yankees shirts and other sports memorabilia, a diamond ring, a television, “various items of furniture,” and “any additional property” as determined by the court.
That list also includes the rights to money that Giuliani claims he is owed by Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee for his spurious legal efforts to election results.
Giuliani told a bankruptcy court earlier this year that he believes Trump’s campaign and the RNC owed him $2 million.
His three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment on the Upper East Side is reportedly valued at $5.6 million. His Benz is valued at roughly $25,000.
In a statement following last week’s order, Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman said the former mayor is “being unfairly punished by partisan, political activists who are trying to make an example out of him.”
“It is painfully clear,” he added. “They are attempting to bully and intimidate him into silence through the weaponization of our justice system and through obvious lawfare. … Mayor Giuliani has faith that justice will ultimately prevail, and he will be fully vindicated, just as he had been in countless other situations.”
