Rudy Giuliani was blasted by a Manhattan federal court judge Thursday for claiming he didn’t know the location of assets he owes the Georgia mother and daughter election workers he defamed — telling the former mayor the claim was “farcical.”
“The notion that your client doesn’t have any knowledge of where his assets are located is farcical,” Judge Lewis Liman scolded Giuliani’s legal team.
Giuliani, 80, was told more than two weeks ago to turn over his multi-million dollar Upper East Side co-op apartment, along with its contents, his cash accounts, sports memorabilia, furniture, jewelry and other valuables to partially satisfy the $148 million judgment a federal jury ordered him to pay Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss for falsely accusing them of ballot fraud during the 2020 election Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.
More than a week after the Oct. 29 deadline had passed, Giuliani was summoned to court after Moss and Freeman’s lawyers alerted the judge that he’d emptied his E. 66th St. apartment around a month ago. Giuliani’s team later informed them that items had been moved to a Long Island storage facility without specifying which ones.
Former Georgia election workers Wandrea Moss is comforted by her mother Ruby Freeman, right, at the Capitol in Washington, June 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Liman also learned that Giuliani had been photographed in his 1980 Mercedes-Benz, once owned by Lauren Bacall, at a Florida polling site on Election Day that’s also on the list of things he must give up.
On Thursday, Giuliani stood up in court and said the people trying to take control of his assets had treated him “rudely.”
Sounding exasperated, Liman threatened to hold the former mayor in contempt “if he doesn’t comply.”
Saying their queries had been “deflected or ignored,” Moss and Freeman’s lawyer, Aaron Nathan, asked the judge to either caution Giuliani or give him a time and a place to drop off his stuff.
Giuliani’s lawyer, Ken Caruso, said everything he had to give up was in Palm Beach, a storage facility in Ronkonkoma, L.I., and his E. 66th St. apartment. Liman told Freeman and Moss to let Giuliani know by Monday where and when to drop off the items he must forfeit. Giuliani agreed to part with Bacall’s car, watches, and other items sought by next week.
Earlier in the hearing, Nathan said significant issues about Giuliani’s cash accounts also needed to be resolved. He said Giuliani’s side this week revealed for the first time bank accounts he’d opened in July containing around $40,000 and that he and his associates had formed an LLC on Aug. 30, Standard USA LLC, in which he has more than an 80% stake.
“Suffice it to say,” Nathan said, “it’s troubling that we learned about it on Monday for the first time.”
After Freeman and Moss were awarded the massive sum in December, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection in Manhattan in a matter thrown out after the judge found he was not being forthcoming about his finances. The mother and daughter then brought the ongoing collection effort.
The lawsuit is one of several Giuliani faces in addition to criminal cases in Georgia and Arizona stemming from his alleged election subversion efforts.
At a chaotic press conference outside the courthouse, Giuliani said, “They can have all my property, but they’re not going to get me to back off from what I believe in.”
He empathically said “No!” when asked whether he regretted defaming Freeman and Moss, prompting Caruso to jump in front of the mic to say the matter was being addressed on appeal. Giuliani’s lies about the two women forced them to flee their homes and quit their jobs.
Speaking about his debunked claims that the last presidential election was rigged, Giuliani said, “I argued the case for Donald J. Trump because I believed in him. He’s entitled to have lawyers that believe in him. That right was taken away from him.”
“Someday your rights may be taken away from you if you continue to let this go on,” Giuliani threatened journalists, then derided the Manhattan judges who presided over Trump’s “stupid” trials.
Asked whether he’ll seek President-elect Trump’s help getting out of the massive judgment he must pay Freeman and Moss, Giuliani said, “Mr. Trump doesn’t have to help me get out of it. All he has to do is straighten out the legal system.”
Giuliani said he’d spoken with Trump since his victory against Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I’m not going to tell you,” he said when asked what they discussed.