Rudy Giuliani petitions for financial protection following $146 million criticism suit judgment
Former New York City mayor and attorney for Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, as indicated in a court filing.
This move comes less than a week after a jury ordered Giuliani to pay $146 million in damages to Fulton County election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who had sued him for defamation. Giuliani estimates his liabilities to be in the range of $100 million to $500 million. The original damage award was set at $148 million, but a federal judge later reduced it to $145,969,000.
"This maneuver is unsurprising, and it will not succeed in discharging Mr. Giuliani's debt to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss," said Michael Gottleib, a lawyer representing the two women, in a statement.
On Wednesday, Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered Giuliani to compensate the election workers immediately, expressing concerns about his honesty regarding his finances and his potential non-compliance with the judgment.
Giuliani had falsely claimed after the 2020 presidential election that the election workers were involved in a fake ballot processing scheme. His attorney had recently indicated that Giuliani's financial resources were not sufficient to meet the compensation sought by Moss and Freeman.
Giuliani's political adviser, Ted Goodman, told CBS News that the bankruptcy filing "should be a surprise to no one."
"No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount," he stated. "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."
As for Giuliani's net worth, it was once estimated to be over $50 million, but it has significantly decreased. In the bankruptcy filing, he assesses his assets to be between $1 million and $10 million. Legal documents reveal that Giuliani owes approximately $724,000 in income tax to the IRS for 2022 and 2021, along with an additional $265,000 in income tax to the state of New York.
Giuliani has also listed "unknown" debts to Dominion Voting Systems, which sued him in 2021 over allegations of falsely stating the company's involvement in rigging the 2020 presidential election, and to Smartmatic USA, another voting systems company that filed a similar suit accusing him of defamation.
