Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor who led efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, went bankruptoverwhelmed by bills derived from the numerous false claims he made to keep Donald Trump in the White House.
Giuliani filed documents seeking protection from creditors in New York, listing debts of up to $500 million and assets of up to $10 million. The filing gives Giuliani breathing room from creditors and halts civil litigation.
He last blow for Giuliani It occurred on Friday, when Two 2020 Georgia Election Workers Ordered to Pay $148 Million after promoting conspiracy theories falsely accusing them of trying to rig the election against Trump.
“The filing should not come as a surprise to anyone,” Heath Berger and Gary Fischoff, Giuliani’s bankruptcy attorneys, said in a statement. “No one could have reasonably believed that Mayor Giuliani would be able to pay such a large punitive amount.”
The Chapter 11 protection It will give Giuliani time to file an appeal of the Georgia lawsuit while providing transparency and fairness to creditors, the lawyers said.
The jury’s verdict on December 15 came after a trial over the damages that Giuliani must pay to Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss for reputational damage and other impacts, including lost wages and mental anguish.
“The lies that Rudy Giuliani told about me and my mom,” Moss said outside the courtroom after the verdict, “have changed our lives.”
Giuliani’s battles
Giuliani included the $148 million debt from the trial loss on a list of unsecured creditors, which also included $1.36 million in unpaid legal fees for which Davidoff Hutcher & Citron sued him in September and $2 million that A former Staten Island grocery store worker is claiming he was arrested for unexpectedly slapping the former mayor on the back.
Giuliani has defended himself in multiple courts in matters ranging from criminal charges to civil defamation, racking up millions of dollars in fees and expenses. As costs mounted, Giuliani admitted in a civil case in early August that he was “having financial difficulties” and asked a judge to postpone some payments.
Legal problems for the former US attorney include a indictment in Georgia on charges of racketeering and conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty. Giuliani was also sued for defamation by election software companies Dominion Voting Systems Inc. and Smartmatic Corp. over their false claims that they conspired to rig the election against Trump by eliminating millions of votes.
The filing lists “unknown” damages against Giuliani in the Dominion and Smartmatic cases. Hunter Biden is also listed as being owed an unknown amount. A Dominion spokesperson said the bankruptcy will not stop the company from trying to hold Giuliani accountable.
The president’s son sued Giuliani in September for allegedly violating his digital privacy by hacking and manipulating data from his supposed laptop. Giuliani illegally accessed a copy of a hard drive that Biden allegedly left at a Delaware repair shop and manipulated the data for financial gain, according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages.
Giuliani has complained that He does not have money to defend himself in all casesand Trump hosted a $100,000-a-person fundraiser in September at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to help the former mayor pay his legal bills.
A three-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that Giuliani owns was listed for $6.5 million in July.
How has Giuliani’s career been?
At the beginning of his career, Giuliani used federal organized crime law to lock up mob bosses and police insider trading on Wall Street when he served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in the 1980s. It helped him rise to the mayoralty, and his leadership after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, garnered worldwide recognition. He himself sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.
He later joined Trump’s legal team and pushed debunked conspiracy theories in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Legal bills piled up and his efforts to pay were thwarted when his law license in New York State and the District of Columbia was suspended. He subsequently faced disqualification proceedings.
Bankruptcy may not allow Giuliani to completely avoid paying court judgments against him. Certain types of debts, such as those related to intentional fraud, cannot be discharged under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
The case is Rudolph W. Giuliani, 23-12055, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
