Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who briefly served as former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, has been ordered to give up several valuable personal assets to two election workers from Georgia, nearly a year after a jury ruled he owed them millions of dollars in damages for defaming their character with false claims of election fraud.
In December 2023, a federal jury found that Giuliani’s statements unduly put into question the integrity of Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, both of whom worked as election workers during the 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani, for example, falsely claimed that the two had entered additional votes for President Joe Biden in the race, handling USB drives “like vials of heroin and cocaine.” Despite state officials finding no evidence of either woman engaging in fraud (with an investigation determining that the “USB drive” in question was a package of mints), Giuliani pressed on with his errant claims for several months, prompting harassment and death threats from Trump supporters, oftentimes with racist overtones against the two women, who are Black.
As a result of their lawsuit against Giuliani, Freeman and Moss were awarded $148 million by the federal jury. Giuliani may not have that amount in assets, but will have to provide as much as he can in his assets to the two, legal experts have noted.
On Tuesday, Judge Lewis Liman of the Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered Giuliani to hand over several of his assets to Freeman and Moss, including a vintage Mercedes-Benz, several pieces of jewelry, his television, numerous pieces of furniture, sports memorabilia and his New York City luxury apartment. Giuliani will also have to give the workers dozens of his watches, including one given to him by his grandfather, a point that Liman made clear wasn’t out of malice but because the law demanded it.
“The watch may be distinctive to defendant as an item of sentimental value, but it is not distinctive to the law,” Liman said in his order.
Freeman and Moss can begin selling off the assets starting next week to recover some of the sum of money they’re owed from Giuliani. However, the former New York City mayor is planning to appeal the decision, his lawyers indicated. If an appeal is made within the next seven days, it’s possible that the forfeiture of assets will be paused, at least for the time being. But even then, Giuliani’s lawyers must either prove he doesn’t owe the two any compensation or owes them less than $10 million — the amount this current list of assets is believed to be worth — in order to prevent some or all of his possessions from being transferred.
Regardless of that possibility, one of the lawyers for Freeman and Moss heralded the ruling from the judge.
“Our clients will finally begin to receive some of the compensation to which they are entitled for Giuliani’s actions,” said lawyer Aaron Nathan.
Giuliani faces other legal challenges, including criminal charges based on his attempts to overturn election results in both Arizona and Georgia. He has also been stripped of his law licenses in New York and Washington, D.C.
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