Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani may be forced to sell his homes in New York and Florida to raise cash for a massive defamation judgment against him as he works his way through bankruptcy proceedings, according to court statements by attorneys.
Mr. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2023, a day after being ordered to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers who sued him for defamation while he was a lawyer for former President Donald Trump.
Mr. Giuliani listed liabilities of $100 million to $500 million and assets of as much as $10 million, according to a bankruptcy form that was filed on Dec. 21 at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Attorneys said during a March 13 status conference at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York that several of Mr. Giulani’s properties may be put up for sale to raise cash to pay off his nearly $153 million debt, the bulk of which is the $148 million defamation judgment, according to Bloomberg Law.
Heath Berger, of Berger Fischoff Shumer Wexler & Goodman LLP, who represents Mr. Giuliani, said in court on Wednesday that a draft listing agreement for Mr. Giuliani’s New York condo is being finalized, while Philip Dublin, of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, said that a committee representing Mr. Giuliani’s unsecured creditors is working on putting his Palm Beach, Florida, property up for sale, per the report.
Mr. Giuliani’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the development.
Defamation Judgment
While the values of some of Mr. Giuliani’s debts were listed as “unknown” in his bankruptcy filing, the biggest specified liability was the $148 million a federal jury 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 New York State Department of Taxation and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with Mr. Giuliani’s total liabilities owed to the government totaling nearly $1 million.
In October 2023, the IRS put a federal tax lien of nearly $500,000 on Mr. Giuliani’s Palm Beach condo, which at the time was appraised at around $3 million.
At the time, the IRS said Mr. Giuliani owes them nearly $550,000 in unpaid income taxes for 2021, with his political advisor, Ted Goodman, telling media outlets that Mr. Giuliani had entered into a formal agreement with the IRS to pay off the liability.
The $148 million payout demanded by the judge stems from a lawsuit in which Mr. Giuliani was accused of defaming the two former election workers with false accusations that they committed voter fraud while counting ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County in the 2020 presidential election.
The two 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 the video, the election workers are seen allegedly mishandling ballots.
However, an investigation by the Georgia Elections Board cleared Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss of any wrongdoing.
‘Equivalent of a Death Penalty’
Mr. Giuliani’s attorney, Joseph Sibley, told the court after the $148 million judgment was issued that the multimillion-dollar payout would spell “the end” for his client and that it would be “the civil equivalent of a death penalty.”
The former New York mayor opted not to contest allegations that he made false statements in the defamation lawsuit brought by the two election workers, though his adviser said it was a legal tactic to allow the case to move forward.
Mr. Giuliani has defended his claims about the former 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 former President Trump’s legal adviser in 2020, has faced other financial troubles.
In September 2023, 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.
Besides financial woes, Mr. Giuliani is also facing disbarment over a lawsuit he filed challenging the 2020 election results.
In July 2023, a District of Columbia disciplinary panel recommended that Mr. Giuliani be disbarred because he allegedly violated two legal ethics rules in what the panel described as a “frivolous” lawsuit.
In particular, the disciplinary panel found that Mr. Giuliani made sweeping claims of voter fraud that failed to adequately support with evidence.
In November 2023, Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers urged the disciplinary board to reject the panel’s recommendation that would strip him of his law license.
