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 much smaller one. Freeman and Moss, the victims of a false voter fraud story at the State Farm Center in Atlanta during the 2020 presidential election, have secured a $148 million judgment against former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani for defaming them and causing emotional distress.
But since the women won that ruling less than a year ago, Giuliani has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with them and has tried various tricks to avoid having to pay. (The verdict is also currently being appealed to a federal appeals court in Washington, DC). First, Giuliani declared personal bankruptcy, effectively freezing the mother and daughter’s ability to recover all of his assets. Months later, a bankruptcy judge in New York dismissed Giuliani’s bankruptcy, ruling that he was a “recalcitrant debtor” who had hidden assets and failed to cooperate with his own proceedings.
Freeman and Moss subsequently filed suit against Giuliani in New York federal court, hoping to have his assets transferred to them under conservatorship — and late last month, federal judge Lewis Liman ordered Giuliani to return most of his assets, his multi-a million-dollar Manhattan condominium, and even an ’80s Mercedes Benz convertible once owned by legendary actress Lauren Bacall for the women. That judge also ordered Giuliani to turn over control of those assets within seven days.
But when the women’s lawyers got the keys to Giuliani’s apartment 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 be in the apartment itself, had been moved to storage on Long Island and that the Mercedes was already in Florida. And as the female lawyers represented to the judge, Giuliani still did not transfer any property to them.
That prompted Liman to call for an in-person hearing on Thursday, November 7, and specifically order Giuliani to attend.
A spokesman for Giuliani, Ted Goodman, told NBC News on Tuesday: “Opposing attorneys, acting negligently or deliberately in a deceptive manner, are simply attempting to further bully and intimidate Mayor Giuliani until he becomes destitute and homeless. This is just another way they have weaponized our once sacred legal system. It should concern every American. Mayor Giuliani has made his property and assets available as ordered. A few items were saved over the course of the past year and everything else that was removed was related to his two livestream programs that stream on his social media platforms every weekday evening.
Still, it doesn’t appear that Giuliani is as blameless as Goodman claims. Rudy being Rudy, he just can’t help it. He now reportedly lives in an apartment in Palm Beach, which he is trying to prevent Freeman and Moss from foreclosing on by claiming it as his primary residence under Florida’s homestead law. And on Tuesday morning, Giuliani was driven to Trump’s polling place as a passenger in the Mercedes that the judge ordered him to hand over to Freeman and Moss by October 29.
Attorneys for Freeman and Moss declined to comment on this development. In the meantime, Giuliani’s lawyers told the court that he cannot be in New York on Thursday because he is contractually bound to a radio broadcast, his equipment is in Florida and his radio work is his only source of “earned income” . The court denied Giuliani’s request because he could not show “good cause” and reiterated that he must appear in person.
Whatever the outcome of Tuesday’s election, something tells me based on what he’s done said After the last election and how he continues to ignore the law, Thursday will be a tough day for Giuliani.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
