Rudy Giuliani, former personal attorney to former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks to the media as he leaves E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Court on December 11, 2023 in Washington, DC.
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Former Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani must turn over his luxury Manhattan apartment, collectible Mercedes-Benz and a host of other treasures as he owes the 2020 election Two women are part of a nearly $150 million verdict after defamation. A federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The list of valuables Giuliani is about to lose also includes items signed by Yankees baseball legends Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson, a diamond ring and two dozen watches.
Some of these assets are irreplaceable. For example, this 1980 Mercedes was previously owned by the famous actress Lauren Bacall, and one of the watches belonged to Giuliani’s grandfather. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when Giuliani was mayor of New York, the French president presented Giuliani with another watch.
Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Liman ruled that Giuliani has seven days to turn over those items and more to former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandria “Shaye” Moss Controlled bankruptcy administration.
Giuliani has repeatedly targeted the two women with false claims of election fraud as part of his efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani for defamation. In December, a federal jury in Washington, D.C., ordered the former mayor to pay them more than $148 million in punitive damages, as well as emotional distress and defamation charges.
Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to protect himself from sudden financial ruin, but a federal bankruptcy judge in New York dismissed his case.
Giuliani has appealed the defamation verdict to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and the case is still pending.
Liman wrote in Tuesday’s order that so far he has not paid any of the nine-figure defamation judgment against him or obtained a court stay that would have allowed him to delay paying off his massive debt.
Liman agreed to the election staff’s request to “immediately transfer” his stake in Giuliani’s Upper East Side penthouse in Manhattan.
Attorneys for Freeman and Moss noted in a previous court filing that “prior to filing for bankruptcy, Mr. Giuliani had listed the New York apartment for sale for $5.7 million.”
Meanwhile, the fate of Giuliani’s Palm Beach, Florida, apartment will not be determined until a court hearing on October 28.
Liman also allowed the plaintiffs to pursue debts that Giuliani said were still owed to him for his work after the 2020 election, totaling about $2 million that the Trump 2020 campaign and the Republican National Committee failed to repay.
Giuliani had asked that the ruling on the unpaid legal fees claim be delayed until after the Nov. 5 election, out of concern that Freeman and Moss “could use the assignment for improper political” purposes, thereby causing unnecessary “Media frenzy”.
Liman declined the request.
“The profound irony of defendant’s alleged concerns is not lost on the court,” the judge wrote.
“Defendants, by their own admission, defamed Plaintiffs by persistently lying to Plaintiffs. Defendants’ lies cast unfounded doubts about the integrity of the vote count in Fulton County, Georgia, following the 2020 presidential election.”
Giuliani has tried to protect some of his unique items from being sold, including his grandfather’s watch. The plaintiffs’ attorneys suggested that the watch could be exempted from the collection if Giuliani could prove that the watch’s value would not exceed the $1,000 exemption limit.
But “he didn’t do that,” Liman wrote on Tuesday, so “the watch must be turned.”
Other items may also have “sentimental value” to Giuliani, the judge wrote. “But this does not mean that the defendant is entitled to continue to enjoy the assets to the detriment of the plaintiff, who owes the plaintiff approximately $150 million.”
Aaron Nathan, an attorney for Moss and Freeman, said in a statement Tuesday that “Ruby and Shaye’s path to justice has been a long one, but they have never wavered.”
A spokesman for Giuliani had no immediate comment when contacted by CNBC.
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