Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to hand out the keys to his Manhattan penthouse to the Georgia election workers he defamed, a judge has ruled.
A federal judge on Tuesday that Donald Trump’s former attorney Giuliani has to give all his valuable possessions to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother and daughter who won a $148 million defamation judgment against him.
Freeman and Moss successfully argued in court that Giuliani’s targeting of them because of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolen led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.
Giuliani must turn over his three-bedroom Upper East Side home in seven days. He had previously put it on the market as his legal and financial issues mounted.
The apartment is in a landmark building built in 1906 near the iconic Central Park. It features a wood-burning fire-place as well as a ‘semi-private elevator landing,’ according to its listing.
Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to hand out the keys to his Manhattan penthouse to the Georgia election workers he defamed, a judge has ruled
Giuliani must turn over his Manhattan apartment in seven days
Judge Lewis Liman also ordered the former New York City mayor to turn over a collection of several watches, a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey and a 1980 Mercedes once owned by Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall, among other luxury items.
Freeman and Moss are also supposed to receive about $2 million in legal fees, which Giuliani has said the Trump campaign still owes him.
Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in December, days after the former election workers won their defamation case.
‘In the absence of a turnover order to a receiver, Plaintiffs would bear the unacceptable risk of delay and Defendant’s insolvency,’ Judge Liman wrote.
‘The Court finds no good cause to impose additional limits on the time or manner of the liquidation or prosecution of any other item or interest on the list.’
Freeman and Moss, who are mother and daughter, successfully argued in court that Giuliani’s targeting of them because of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolen led to death threats
The apartment is in a landmark building built in 1906 near the iconic Central Park
During their trial, Moss and her mother tearfully described becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Republicans as they tried to keep then-President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.
‘Money will never solve all my problems,’ Freeman told reporters outside Washington’s federal courthouse after the verdict.
‘I can never move back into the house that I call home. I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I choose to share my name with. I miss my home. I miss my neighbors and I miss my name.’
Giuliani’s lawyer acknowledged that his client was wrong but insisted that Giuliani was not fully responsible for the vitriol the women faced. The defense sought to largely pin the blame on a right-wing website that published the surveillance video of the two women counting ballots.
Judge Lewis Liman also ordered the former New York City mayor to turn over a model sl500 1980 Mercedes once owned by Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall. One of the same model and year is pictured
Giuliani is still facing his biggest test yet: fighting criminal charges in the Georgia case accusing Trump and 18 others of working to subvert the results of the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden, in that state. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty and characterized the case as politically motivated.
He has also pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges in the Arizona case alleging he spread false claims of election fraud there after the 2020 election.
Last month Giuliani was disbarred in Washington, months after he lost his law license in New York for pursuing the false claims about the 2020 election.
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