A federal judge in Manhattan is hauling Rudy Giuliani back to court to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for repeatedly evading court-ordered attempts to relinquish property to a pair of election workers he owes nearly $150 million.
Attorneys for defamed election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss say the former New York City mayor “has not turned over a single dollar,” nor has he turned over a “number of specific items of personal property that he has been unambiguously ordered” to hand over — including the title to Mercedes Benz convertible, keys to his Manhattan penthouse, valuable sports memorabilia and home furnishings.
“It is unclear at this point even where those possessions are located,” they wrote in court filings on Wednesday.
Giuliani has delivered his car, 18 out of 26 watches, and a “single diamond ring,” as well as access to his New York penthouse apartment, “but no keys or ownership documents,” leaving the women “to sort through significant logistical obstacles to a sale, including the presence of his ex-wife’s name on the title,” according to their attorneys.
Donald Trump’s former attorney delivered “some” of the items in a storage facility he was ordered to open for the women, but nothing inside includes any of the specific items he was ordered to turn over, they said.
District Judge Lewis Liman, who is overseeing the property turnover case in New York, then ordered Giuliani to a civil contempt hearing on January 3.
Last month, Liman warned Giuliani could face contempt sanctions for failing to meet his “unqualified obligation” to deliver all listed property to the women, but Giuliani “has neither complied with that obligation nor provided any explanation for why he could not do so,” according to attorneys for the women.
In another hearing in November, Liman criticized Giuliani for “farcical” excuses about his assets.
In the volatile aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Giuliani falsely accused Freeman and Moss of manipulating election results in Georgia. They sued him for defamation in Washington, D.C., and a jury awarded them $148 million in damages.
He then filed for bankruptcy, though after a protracted legal battle, the case was ultimately dismissed to let Giuliani and his many creditors battle for control of his assets in the courts.
Now, the 80-year-old former mayor faces even more financial penalties — or even jail — in the ongoing legal fallout from his false election claims during his spurious campaign to keep Trump in office.
After repeatedly spreading false claims about the workers throughout the property turnover case, the women urged the judge overseeing his Washington defamation case to hold him in contempt for violating a court order that blocks him from repeating his defamatory statements.
He will appear in court in D.C. on January 10, one week after he sits for a similar hearing in Manhattan.
Giuliani claims he is a victim of a politically motived conspiracy against him, and has said he does not “regret” his statements against election workers.
