Rudy Giuliani, former personal attorney to former President Donald Trump, speaks to reporters as he leaves E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, on December 11, 2023.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is selling off his luxury Manhattan apartment, collectibles, and Mercedes as part of a nearly $150 million judgment he owes two women he defamed after the 2020 election. The Benz and many other treasures must be handed over. A federal judge issued the ruling Tuesday..
The list of high-end valuables Giuliani will soon lose also includes items autographed by Yankees baseball legends Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson, a diamond ring and more than 20 watches.
Some of those assets are irreplaceable. For example, a 1980 Mercedes was previously owned by famous actress Lauren Bacall, and one of the watches belonged to Giuliani’s grandfather. The other watch was a gift to Giuliani from the French president after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when Giuliani was mayor of New York.
Manhattan Federal Judge Louis Lehman gave Giuliani seven days to turn over the items and other items to an agency run by former Georgia election officials Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shay” Moss. The court ruled that there was a grace period.
Mr. Giuliani repeatedly targeted the two women with false election fraud claims as part of his efforts to overturn Mr. Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani for defamation. In December, a federal jury in Washington, D.C., ordered the former mayor to pay more than $148 million in punitive damages, emotional distress and defamation.
Mr. Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to protect himself from sudden financial collapse, but a New York federal bankruptcy judge rejected his case.
Giuliani has appealed the defamation verdict to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the case is still ongoing.
Liman said in Tuesday’s order that he has so far not paid a penny of the nine-figure defamation judgment against him and has also obtained a stay of court that would allow him to delay repayment of his large debt. No, he said.
Mr. Liman granted the election commission’s request for an “immediate transfer” of the shares in Mr. Giuliani’s penthouse apartment on Manhattan’s bustling Upper East Side.
“Prior to filing for bankruptcy, Mr. Giuliani had listed his New York apartment for $5.7 million,” lawyers for Mr. Freeman and Mr. Moss noted in a previous court filing.
Meanwhile, the fate of Mr. Giuliani’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, will not be decided until a court hearing on October 28.
Mr. Lehman also addressed debts that the plaintiffs claim Mr. Giuliani still owes for his work after the 2020 election, totaling approximately $2 million in unpaid payments by the 2020 Trump campaign and Republican National Committee. Permission was granted to pursue the plaintiffs.
Mr. Giuliani, concerned that Mr. Freeman and Mr. Moss could use the assignment for “inappropriate political” purposes, causing an unnecessary “media frenzy,” ruled in November on the claims for unpaid legal fees. They asked that it be postponed until after the election on the 5th.
Mr. Lehman balked at the request.
“The deep irony of the defendant’s expression of concern was not lost on the court,” the judge wrote.
“By its own admission, Defendant defamed Plaintiff by perpetuating falsehoods about Plaintiff. ”
Giuliani was trying to protect some of his unique items, including his grandfather’s clock, from being sold off. Plaintiffs’ lawyers had offered to exempt the watch from the collection if Giuliani could prove it was worth no more than the $1,000 exemption limit.
But “he has not done so,” Lehman wrote Tuesday, “and therefore the clock must be turned over.”
Other items may also have “sentimental value” to Giuliani, the judge wrote. “However, this does not entitle the defendants to continue enjoying their assets to the detriment of the plaintiffs, who are owed approximately $150 million.”
“Ruby and Shay’s road to justice has been a long one, but they never wavered,” Moss and Freeman’s attorney Aaron Nathan said in a statement Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Mr. Giuliani did not immediately comment to CNBC.