Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Manhattan on Thursday, less than a week after he was socked with $148 million in damages for defaming two Atlanta election workers.
Giuliani listed debts as high as $500 million and between $1 million and $10 million in assets in bankruptcy papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court. Last week, a Washington, D.C., jury set the mammoth judgment for his campaign of lies against Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
Giuliani addressed the filing on his WABC broadcast Thursday.
“I think you probably know, today I did something that, of course, I would rather not do,” he said.
“No one really wants to do this, but I believe it was the responsible and only thing to do — which was to declare bankruptcy.”
In a statement, Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman said, “The filing should be a surprise to no one.”
“No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount,” Goodman said. “Chapter 11 will afford Mayor Giuliani the opportunity and time to pursue an appeal while providing transparency for his finances under the supervision of the bankruptcy court to ensure all creditors are treated equally and fairly throughout the process.”
U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell, who presided over Giuliani’s recent damages trial, ruled Wednesday that Freeman and Moss could immediately start to collect the eye-popping award.
In the latest brutal order against Giuliani, the judge said the mother-daughter election workers don’t have to wait for the standard 30 days to go after the cash-strapped ex-mayor’s assets to satisfy the judgment.
“Giuliani has never denied that he has taken steps to hide his assets from judgment creditors, and has offered no affirmative pledge that he will take no steps to do so,” Howell wrote.
The judge excoriated Giuliani for brazenly ignoring her previous orders to provide evidence of his financial condition to back up his claims that he’s practically broke. Howell noted Giuliani had “simply ignored” her orders without “making any excuse.”
On Monday, Freeman and Moss filed a fresh defamation lawsuit after Giuliani remarkably doubled down on claims they had improperly tampered with ballots in the 2020 Atlanta vote count after the jury awarded the head-spinning damages. They’re also asking Howell to order Giuliani to stop slandering them, possibly leading to further punishment if he keeps crossing the line.
The suit points to Giuliani’s inexplicable claim outside court during the trial itself that he never lied about the women, even though he had stipulated to doing just that in legal papers. That drew a rebuke from Howell, who warned him he had likely defamed them again.
Giuliani’s bankruptcy bid may buy him some time to deal with the stack of lawsuits he faces by temporarily pausing them, but it is unlikely to save him from forking over what cash he has to Freeman and Moss. That’s because damages incurred by “intentional torts” like Giuliani’s ugly smears of the election workers are not covered by bankruptcy protection.
Submerged in legal debt, Giuliani put his opulent East Side co-op apartment on the market this summer, recently slashing the asking price by $400,000, hoping to score $6.1 million for the Park Ave. pad.
The defamation suit is just one of many criminal and costly civil cases facing the 79-year-old once known as “America’s mayor,” including 13 felony counts in Georgia accusing him of plotting to subvert the state’s 2020 election results with Trump and 17 others. He’s pleaded not guilty in that case. He’s also racked up legal fees in the fight to keep his law license.
Among the creditors Giuliani recorded in his bankruptcy papers Thursday, along with Freeman and Moss, is President Biden’s son, Hunter, who’s suing him for hacking his laptop, which Giuliani contests. He also listed about $1 million owed to the IRS and New York tax authorities and damages demanded by Noelle Dunphy, a former assistant suing him in Manhattan for sexual assault, harassment and unpaid wages, allegations he denies.
The list also includes Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, both suing him for defamation, law firms that have represented him, and Daniel Gill, a former Staten Island ShopRite worker who spent a night in jail and lost his job after Giuliani falsely accused him of assault. Giuliani, facing possible disbarment, is representing himself in that case.
Reacting to Thursday’s filing, Gill’s lawyer, Ron Kuby, told the Daily News, “Rudy’s not just morally bankrupt,” said Kuby. “But financially bankrupt as well.”
