Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy protection, a day after being ordered to pay $148 million immediately to two former Georgia election workers who sued him for defamation.
Mr. Giuliani listed liabilities of between $100–500 million and assets between $1–10 million, according to a bankruptcy form obtained by The Epoch Times, which was filed on Dec. 21 at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
While the values of some of Mr. Giuliani’s debts were listed as “unknown,” the biggest specified liability is the $148 million a federal jury last week ordered him to pay to Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss, the two former Georgia election workers.
Other creditors listed in Mr. Giuliani’s bankruptcy filing include the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the New York State Department of Taxation, with his total liabilities owed to the government totaling nearly $1 million.
A day before Mr. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy, a federal judge ordered that the former New York City mayor must pay the two former election workers $148 million immediately.
The payout demanded by the judge stems from a lawsuit in which Mr. Giuliani was accused of defaming the two former Georgia election workers with false accusations that they committed voter fraud while counting ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County in the 2020 presidential election.
Immediate Enforcement
In a ruling handed down on Dec. 20, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell backed a request by the two former election workers, who contended that Mr. Giuliani lacked the financial means to pay them after a 30-day delay on the payouts was lifted.
The mother-daughter duo, in their request to the court, said they feared the former Trump attorney would use the 30-day delayed payment period to “alienate or dissipate what assets are available to satisfy even a small portion” of the nearly $150 million payout.
In her ruling, Judge Howell, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, said there is “good cause” to believe that Mr. Giuliani will “seek to dissipate or conceal his assets during the 30-day period.”
The judge said Mr. Giuliani has”proven himself to be an unwilling and uncooperative litigant.”
“Second, as plaintiffs submit and as Giuliani does not contest, ‘Giuliani has numerous and mounting debts, including to his own attorneys and other litigants seeking to reduce their claims to judgment,'” the judge wrote.
Noting the mounting number of legal battles Mr. Giuliani and his businesses are currently facing, Judge Howell wrote that the potentially competing claims to his assets “raise the risk that Giuliani has even greater motivation to hide his financial assets from potential future judgments against him.”
The two Georgia election workers claimed they were subjected to relentless abuse after they were identified in a video clip that became widely circulated after the 2020 general election. In it, they are seen allegedly mishandling ballots.
However, an investigation by the Georgia Elections Board later cleared Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss of any wrongdoing.
The women testified at trial that Mr. Giuliani made allegations against them and intended to cause them harm. The two also claimed they had received death threats and suffered emotional harm as a result of his claims.
Mr. Giuliani’s attorney, Joseph Sibley, told the court last week that the multi-million dollar payout would spell “the end” for his client and that it would be “the civil equivalent of a death penalty.”
Mr. Giuliani has backed his claims about the two former Georgia election workers and told reporters on Dec. 11, the day the defamation damages trial began, that “everything I said about them is true.”
Mr. Giuliani, who served as President Donald Trump’s legal adviser in 2020, is reportedly facing financial troubles.
Financial Woes
In September, Mr. Giuliani’s former lawyers sued him over allegations that he failed to pay roughly $1.36 million in legal fees. Mr. Giuliani has said he believes the amount being sought is too much.
In October, the IRS placed a tax lien of nearly half a million dollars on a Florida condo owned by Mr. Giuliani, per court filings. In it, the IRS claims Mr. Giuliani owes $549,435.26 in unpaid income taxes for 2021 and so the agency has placed a lien on his penthouse in Palm Beach. His political advisor Ted Goodman told media outlets that Mr. Giuliani has “a formal agreement with the IRS to pay off the liability.”
Besides financial difficulties, Mr. Giuliani is also among the 19 individuals, including President Trump, indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, in relation to their efforts challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.
Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
