Donald Trump’s former lawyer and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani must hand over control of his Manhattan penthouse and several valuable possessions to two election workers to whom he owes a nearly $150 million defamation judgment, a court ruled Tuesday. American judge.
Judge Lewis Liman of the federal court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan said Giuliani has seven days to list the Madison Avenue apartment and a list of luxury items, including several watches, jewelry, furniture, sports memorabilia and a vintage Mercedes , bankrupt. which will be controlled by Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
The two women will also be entitled to legal fees Giuliani says he is still owed by Trump’s 2020 campaign, estimated to total about $2 million, the judge ruled.
Control of the Manhattan penthouse will be transferred to Moss and Freeman in order to sell it. The apartment has an estimated value of more than five million dollars.
Among the items Giuliani has to hand over are a 1980 Mercedes once owned by Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall; 26 luxury watches, including one given to him by the president of France after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when Giuliani was mayor of New York; and a baseball jersey signed by Joe DiMaggio.
One of those watches was given to Giuliani by his grandfather and he asked to be allowed to keep it because of its sentimental value. But Liman rejected the request, saying Giuliani could have exempted him if he had proven he was worth less than $1,000, but he didn’t.
The judge added: “No matter how painful the circumstances, a party cannot expect all family heirlooms to be exempt.”
The decision on whether to transfer control of an additional condominium in Palm Beach, Florida, and a collection of New York Yankees World Series rings into receivership will be determined after an additional hearing in late October, Liman ruled . Giuliani’s son Andrew, who is also named as a defendant in the case, claimed in court that his father gave him the rings.
Giuliani has claimed that the Palm Beach condo should be exempt from receivership because it is his primary residence. Freeman and Moss have a lien on the Florida property, which is estimated to be worth approximately $3 million.
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Last year, a jury awarded $148 million in damages to Moss and Freeman, who sued Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them after the 2020 election.
Giuliani was one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in pushing unfounded allegations of large-scale voter fraud, and claimed that the two women, who at the time were poll workers in Georgia, had helped transfer votes cast by Trump to his opponent. Joe Biden, who won the election.
Moss and Freeman testified at their defamation trial and before the U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that Giuliani’s lies about them disrupted their lives. and led to death threats.
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy shortly after the defamation verdict in December. But in July a judge dismissed his case, citing failure to comply with court orders, failure to disclose sources of income and his apparent unwillingness to hire an accountant to review his books.
To date, Giuliani has not paid anything to Freeman and Moss. The women requested control of Giuliani’s assets in August to obtain the value of the judgment.
“We are proud that our clients are finally beginning to receive some of the compensation they are entitled to for Giuliani’s actions,” Aaron Nathan, an attorney for Freeman and Moss, said in a statement. “This result should send a powerful message that those who choose to intentionally spread disinformation have to pay a price.”
Giuliani had asked the judge to prohibit Freeman and Moss from selling any of their assets until their appeal of the $148 million judgment was completed. Liman also rejected that request, saying Giuliani could have asked the federal court in Washington, D.C., where Freeman and Moss won their defamation case, to halt any asset sales pending his appeal, but did not do so.
“The Court also does not doubt that some of the items may have sentimental value to the defendant,” the judge wrote. “But that does not entitle the defendant to continue enjoying the assets to the detriment of the plaintiffs to whom he owes approximately $150 million. After all, the underlying policy of these New York statutes is that ‘no man shall be permitted to live both in luxury and in debt.’”
Giuliani, once a well-known prosecutor before running for mayor, was disbarred in New York and had his law license suspended in Washington, D.C., earlier this year over his false claims of election fraud. A review panel in Washington recommended that he also be disbarred there for making the claims without any evidence.
—With additional files from the Associated Press
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