Attorneys for the two Georgia election workers had already raised concerns that Giuliani may try to conceal assets to avoid meeting his legal obligations.
Former New York City mayor and Trump campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy less than a day after a federal judge ordered him to pay nearly $150 million in damages to two Georgia election workers.
According to N.P.R., Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this week, on Thursday. In it, he reported millions of dollars in debt from lawsuits, unpaid taxes, and other outstanding legal fees.
Giuliani’s move toward bankruptcy, adds N.P.R., came a day after a federal judge ruled that the former Trump attorney must immediately compensate Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman.
Both women—mother and daughter—worked with the Elections Department in Fulton County, Georgia. They became central in a strange conspiracy theory suggesting that Democrats across the country conspired to fix the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.
Sharing footage of Moss and Freeman performing ordinary, election-related tasks, Giuliani and other Trump officials began false spreading rumors that the women had scanned pro-Biden ballots multiple times.
Moss and Freeman say that, after Giuliani made these claims, they began receiving violent, racist, and threatening voicemails.
“I was afraid for my life,” Moss testified in a December hearing. “I literally felt that someone would attempt to hang me and there was nothing anyone could do about it.”
Georgia state officials also noted that, even after a years-long investigation, they were unable to find any evidence suggesting that either woman had done anything unusual.
“There was no evidence that suggested they did anything wrong, except show up for work and work hard,” said Frank Braun, who led the Georgia Secretary of State’s investigation into the election fraud allegations.
Giuliani has already begun positioning himself to avoid accountability, with a political advisor saying that the jury-awarded damages are unrealistic.
“No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount,” Giuliani advisor Ted Goodman said in a statement. “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.”
Nevertheless, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell has directed that Giuliani make an immediate payment, saying that the former mayor has “proven himself to be an unwilling and uncooperative litigant.”
“Nowhere in opposition does Giuliani promise not to hide assets from plaintiffs,” Howell wrote in a court order Wednesday. “Nor does he contend, let alone demonstrate with documentary or other proof, that he would be unable to satisfy the judgment or in part.”
Howell observed that, even as Giuliani’s lawyers argued that paying damages would be “the civil equivalent of the death penalty,” neither he nor his counsel have responded to requests for evidence of financial difficulties.
Instead, Giuliani hired a spokesperson—a spokesperson who not only conveyed Giuliani’s interests to the press, but attended trial with him, too.
“Such claims of Giuliani’s ‘financial difficulties’ – no matter how many times repeated or publicly disseminated and duly reported in the media – are difficult to square with the fact that Giuliani affords a spokesperson, who accompanied him daily to trial,” Howell wrote.
Attorneys for Freeman and Moss said that, even though it appears that Giuliani has “substantial assets” in New York and Florida, there is a significant risk that he may find a way to liquidate his holdings and minimize his financial responsibility to avoid paying damages.
“There is substantial risk that Defendant Giuliani will find a way to dissipate those assets before Plaintiffs are able to recover,” they wrote.
Giuliani, notes FOX-5, is still awaiting criminal trial for election conspiracy-related charges in Georgia.
Sources
Giuliani files for bankruptcy after judge rules Georgia election workers can collect $148m
Giuliani is ordered to pay $148 million to Georgia election workers he defamed
Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy a day after a judge orders him to pay $146 million
Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy days after being ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation case
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