A federal judge in New York has ordered former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to turn over his luxury Manhattan apartment and many of his valuables to the two Georgia election workers he defamed.
In a decision released Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman ordered Giuliani, a longtime ally of and former lawyer for former President Donald Trump, to transfer personal property “including cash accounts, jewelry and valuables, a legal claim for unpaid attorneys’ fees, and his interest in his Madison Avenue co-op apartment to a receivership” within seven days.
Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, filed an action to seize Giuliani’s assets in August in an effort to begin collecting on the $146 million in damages they were awarded last year after a judge found Giuliani liable for having repeatedly defamed them. Giuliani had falsely accused the pair of election fraud after the 2020 presidential election.
The judge granted the mother and daughter the right to use a receiver to sell off Giuliani’s assets “in order to ensure that the liquidation of the transferred assets is accomplished quickly” while “maximizing the sale value of the unique and intangible items and therefore increasing the likelihood of satisfaction of the Plaintiffs’ judgment.”
Among the items that are supposed to be turned over are Giuliani’s apartment, which is valued at $5.7 million; his collection of luxury watches, including watches given to him by his grandfather and the French president; a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey; a signed Reggie Jackson picture; and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz previously owned by actor Lauren Bacall.
Some items not included in the decision are his three New York Yankees World Series rings, because his son, Andrew Giuliani, has claimed that his father gave the rings to him as gifts. The judge said Andrew Giuliani’s claim — and Freeman and Moss’ claim to Giuliani’s Florida condo unit— would be determined later.
The unpaid legal fee that Liman mentions refers to $2 million that Giuliani says the Trump campaign owes him for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
It was during that period that Giuliani began repeatedly accusing Freeman and Moss of election fraud in the wake of Trump’s loss in Georgia. He also circulated a brief, heavily edited clip of security video that he told a legislative committee in Georgia showed them passing USB drives “like vials of heroin or cocaine” during ballot-counting operations. Moss said the “USB drive” was actually a ginger mint.
State election officials at the time said the pair had done nothing wrong, and an investigation by Georgia’s State Election Board determined the allegations were “unsubstantiated and found to have no merit.”
Giuliani still never backed off the claims, which the women said led to harassment and numerous racist and violent death threats, eventually forcing them to leave their jobs. A judge found Giuliani liable for defaming the pair after he repeatedly snubbed court orders to turn over required evidence to Freeman and Moss.
A jury handed down the hefty money award to the pair in December, but their efforts to collect were stymied for months after Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection. A bankruptcy judge dismissed Giuliani’s case in August, citing his failure to turn over information about his businesses while also submitting incomplete or incorrect information about his personal spending.
An attorney for Freeman and Moss, Aaron Nathan of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, praised the judge’s ruling Tuesday.
“We are proud that our clients will finally begin to receive some of the compensation to which they are entitled for Giuliani’s actions,” Nathan said, adding the “outcome should send a powerful message that there is a price to pay for those who choose to intentionally spread disinformation.”
A representative for Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Giuliani’s efforts on Trump’s behalf have also led to his being stripped of his law licenses in New York and Washington, D.C., and being charged in criminal cases in Arizona and Georgia. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
