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MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal judge fumed at former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani on Thursday afternoon, ordering him to “promptly” begin surrendering specific items of personal property into the custody of two former Georgia election workers he was found to have defamed following the 2020 presidential election.
“He is under an unqualified obligation to deliver all of the receivership property to the receiver,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman told Giuliani’s lawyer at a status conference on Thursday. “If he doesn’t comply, I’m sure I’m going to get a motion for contempt.”
Giuliani owes $148 million in civil damages to former poll workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss for his false claims that the mother and daughter helped rig the state’s 2020 election for Biden, and for the torrent of racist death threats that followed, but lawyers for Freeman and Moss said Giuliani was dragging his feet on turning over his assets and had “secreted away” property.
“Our history with defendant, just in terms of compliance with court orders, is delay and evasion,” Willkie Farr & Gallagher attorney Aaron Nathan said at a status conference in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday.
Last month, Liman ordered Giuliani to surrender the lease to his Manhattan apartment to a federal receiver, along with his 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL500 and his claims to approximately $2 million outstanding legal fees owed by legal fees owed by former president Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee, within seven days.
A week after that Oct. 29 deadline — and two days after Trump won reelection — Liman ordered Giuliani to turn over the keys and title to his vintage Benz convertible on Nov. 11.
“It is a court holiday, but I don’t think it will prevent the Wilkie Farr people from giving your directions,” the judge said.
Giuliani drew attention earlier in the week when he made a public appearance in Florida on election day, driving around in the 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall.
The judge also ordered Giuliani to “completely and fully” answer an information subpoena pertaining his finances. “You are now being ordered to answer that,” he said. “Any ambiguity of that?”
Giuliani’s lawyer Kenneth Caruso briefly argued that Giuliani was unable to recall all of his financial assets, but Liman chastised the legal premise of that argument.
“The notion that your client doesn’t have any knowledge of where his assets are located is farcical,” the Trump-appointed judge remarked.
Attorneys from Freeman and Moss said they have discovered that Giuliani has previously-undisclosed bank accounts with $40,000 in cash deposits, along with a newly founded company, Standard USA LLC, over which he has at least 80% ownership interest. “Suffice it to say, it’s troubling that we learned about it on Monday for the first time,” Nathan said.
They argued that Giuliani stonewalled replying to their subpoena for more information. “Unambiguous requests for information have been evaded and ignored," Nathan told the judge.
Giuliani’s lawyers said some of the property that is subject to the turnover order was cleared out from his Manhattan apartment and been moved to a storage facility in Ronkonkoma, Long Island, where he longer has access to the items.
Liman was not persuaded by Giuliani’s lawyer’s account of struggling to repossess whatever property ended up out East in storage, however, and noted that a debtor’s efforts to the comply with court orders will be relevant in potential contempt proceedings.
“It strikes me as hard to believe that your client couldn’t get someone at the storage facility to open up the storage facility to retrieve his property," he said.
After the 90-minute hearing concluded, Giuliani spoke to reporters gathered outside of the courthouse. He compared his case to similar “political harassment” that he said also targeted president-elect Trump.
“Mr. Trump doesn’t have to help me get out of it," he said. “All Mr. Trump has to do is straighten out the legal system.”
Before serving as New York City’s mayor from 1994 to 2001, Giuliani was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, from June 3, 1983 until Jan. 1, 1989.
In a separate civil action, Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani in August, accusing him of trying to prevent creditors from seizing his luxury condominium in Palm Beach, Florida, by falsely claiming primary residency in the Sunshine State.
Liman has set a tentative bench trial on Giuliani’s pending homestead claims to the Palm beach condo to begin Jan. 16, 2025.
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