Rudy Giuliani is ordered to turn over assets to 2 Georgia election workers. How will that work?
Rudy Giuliani has to get his stuff together.
The former New York City mayor has been ordered to turn over his Manhattan apartment, a Mercedes and a variety of other personal possessions — from his television to a shirt signed by Joe DiMaggio — to two Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against him.
So how will that work? Does he gather up his prized possessions and send them in a truck to a place of the workers' choosing? Or do the workers — Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss — have to send their own truck to pick them up?
Here's how the property turnover may work, according to lawyers involved with the case and Tuesday's order by a federal judge in New York.
Giuliani has been ordered within seven days to hand over a variety of property to Freeman and Moss to help pay some of the $148 million judgment. Besides the New York City apartment, 26 luxury watches and the 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, he also must relinquish a shirt and picture signed, respectively, by Yankees legends Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson, a signed Yankee Stadium picture, a diamond ring, costume jewelry and money in certain bank accounts.
Freeman and Moss won a defamation lawsuit over Giuliani’s false ballot fraud claims against them in connection with the 2020 presidential election. They said Giuliani pushed former President Donald Trump’s lies about the election being stolen, which led to death threats that made them fear for their lives. Giuliani falsely accused them of sneaking in ballots in suitcases, counting ballots multiple times and tampering with voting machines.
It's not clear where the items the former New York City mayor must surrender are located. His attorneys did not return messages Wednesday.
Lawyers in the case say details of the property transfer will be worked out in the coming days. Giuliani could send the items to a place of Freeman and Moss' choosing. If he doesn't agree to that, Freeman and Moss may have to rent a truck or van at their own expense and send it to Giuliani's apartment or wherever the assets are.
Once Freeman and Moss obtain the items, they will store them at locations of their choosing, with the smaller items possibly being kept at their lawyers' offices.
Their lawyers are expected to obtain possession of documents related to ownership of the New York apartment.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan appointed Freeman and Moss as “receivers” and gave them authority to take possession of many of Giuliani's assets and immediately sell them.
Any money they receive from selling the assets must be put into a trust account. Lawyers for Freeman and Moss would have to ask the judge for permission to disperse funds from the account to their clients.
The New York apartment is estimated to be worth more than $5 million. Giuliani also has been ordered to turn over his interest in about $2 million he says the Trump 2020 presidential campaign owes him for his services. The value of the other items Giuliani has to surrender isn't clear.
Any sale or new occupancy of the New York apartment would be subject to the approval of the building's co-op board. So, no, Freeman and Moss could not immediately move in or sublet it.
Still tied up in litigation in the case is Giuliani's condo in Palm Beach, Florida, estimated to be worth more than $3 million, and four New York Yankees World Series rings Giuliani received during his tenure as mayor. Giuliani argues that he should be able to keep the Florida condo because it's his primary residence, while his son, Andrew, claims his father gave him the World Series rings as gifts.
Giuliani is appealing the $148 million judgment in a federal court in Washington.
He had asked the New York judge to bar Freeman and Moss from selling any of his assets until after his appeal is completed. But the judge rejected that request. He said Giuliani could have — but failed to ask — the federal court in Washington, D.C., where Freeman and Moss won their case to stay any asset sales pending his appeal.
Giuliani's lawyers said Tuesday that if he wins the appeal, Freeman and Moss would owe him the money they received from selling the assets or the true value of the property, whichever is higher.
Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman said Wednesday that Giuliani was being “unfairly punished by partisan, political activists who are trying to make an example out of him" and the court order is forcing him to “relinquish deeply personal belongings.”
“They are attempting to bully and intimidate him into silence through the weaponization of our justice system and through obvious lawfare,” Goodman said in a statement. "Mayor Giuliani has faith that justice will ultimately prevail, and he will be fully vindicated, just as he had been in countless other situations.”
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