By The Independent (World News) | Created at 2024-10-22 19:10:24 | Updated at 2024-10-22 21:42:59
2 hours ago
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A vast amount of Rudy Giuliani’s property — including cash, a Manhattan penthouse, 26 watches, and money he claims he is owed by Donald Trump’s campaign — could soon be possessed by a court, after the disbarred former New York City mayor failed to pay a pair of election workers he owes tens of millions of dollars for defamation.
A federal judge in Manhattan on Tuesday ordered Giuliani to transfer a long list of valuables within seven days, pending the outcome of a court hearing on the state of his financial affairs on October 28.
That list 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 overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election — a saga that also saw him make defamatory statements about Rudy Freeman and Shaye Moss, two election workers in Georgia who were later awarded nearly $150 million from a jury.
The outcome of that defamation trial prompted Giuliani to file for bankruptcy, a case that has since been dissolved, which unfroze the long list of litigation against him.
Giuliani told a bankruptcy court earlier this year that he believes Trump’s campaign and the RNC owed him $2 million.
Other valuables that could soon be in receivership include cash from his checking accounts, a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL500, 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.
His three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment on the Upper East Side is reportedly valued at $5.6 million, according to The Independent’s review of Giuliani’s assets.
His Benz, reportedly once owned by actress Lauren Bacall, is valued at roughly $25,000.
Giuliani’s son Andrew has asked the court to block Freeman and Moss from going after his father’s World Series rings. Those are exempt from receivership, according to Tuesday’s order.
Trump’s former attorney also is blocked from selling off or taking any other actions involving his Florida condo, which he says is now his chief residence.
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.
