The year 2024 promises to be a terrible one for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani with bankruptcy proceedings likely not beginning before the beginning of January, a criminal trial pending in Georgia, a pending sexual harassment case and a privacy lawsuit by Hunter Biden.
Giuliani, who was sued after making false claims about two election workers, may have to stay in bankruptcy for the rest of his life, an expert told Newsweek.
Giuliani declared bankruptcy in December, two days after he was ordered to pay the $148 million to a mother and daughter he wrongly accused of secretly adding ballots for Joe Biden during the presidential election in 2020. Giuliani was Donald Trump's personal lawyer at the time.
Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, will likely have to go to bankruptcy court to recover any money.
Newsweek sought email comment from Giuliani's spokesman on Wednesday.
John Bringardner, head of Debtwire, a global news and data organization covering debt and bankruptcies, told Newsweek that Giuliani's troubles will continue to mount in 2024, despite seeking bankruptcy protection.
"The $148 million judgment against him in the Georgia election worker case triggered the bankruptcy filing, but he still could face massive judgments in several other pending lawsuits, including a sexual assault claim from Noelle Dunphy and the hacking lawsuit from Hunter Biden. His bankruptcy will likely last for months, if not years, as his lawyers work out a plan to navigate payment of these and future potential claims," Bringardner said.
In May 2023, Dunphy, a former associate of Giuliani, launched a $10 million lawsuit against him alleging "abuses of power, wide-ranging sexual assault and harassment, wage theft and other misconduct" including "alcohol-drenched rants that included sexist, racist and antisemitic remarks."
In September 2023, President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, launched a lawsuit in California, alleging that Giuliani disseminated private information from Biden's laptop.
Bringardner said that Giuliani's debts are so large that he may not be able to come out of bankruptcy.
"The closest parallel is the Chapter 11 of Alex Jones, whose bankruptcy judge determined this October that his massive lawsuit debts were 'non-dischargeable' in bankruptcy, raising the prospect that he will spend the rest of his life attempting to pay off his debts," he said.
In November 2022, a Connecticut judge ruled that Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay $473 million in punitive damages for his defamatory claims about the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting.
The ruling came a month after a jury in Waterbury, Connecticut, found that Jones and the parent company of his Infowars website must pay more than a dozen relatives of Sandy Hook victims almost $1 billion for falsely claiming they were actors who staged the shooting as part of a government plot to seize Americans' guns.
Bringardner said he expects Giuliani's bankruptcy court hearing to begin very soon.
"Giuliani's lawyers have filed the typical paperwork needed to kick off a Chapter 11 proceeding and an initial court hearing should be scheduled in the days ahead. Given the holidays and Judge Sean Lane's calendar, it seems likely the hearing won't take place until the first week of January," he said.
"Just like Purdue Pharma or The Boy Scouts of America, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in order to deal with massive judgments against them and hundreds of other pending lawsuits, Giuliani is using bankruptcy as a way to manage his litigation liabilities."
Purdue went into bankruptcy amid a massive wave of lawsuits as a result of painkiller addiction and Boy Scouts of America declared bankruptcy amid numerous lawsuits over allegations of child sexual abuse.
"The Chapter 11 filing doesn't make judgments disappear," Bringardner said. "But it does give Giuliani a way to organize current and future judgments—and figure out how much he will have to pay."
In addition, an indictment, unsealed in August 2023, accuses Giuliani, Donald Trump and 17 other defendants—including Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows; former Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark; and former Georgia Republican Chairman David Shafer—of a large-scale conspiracy to reverse the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Of the 19 indicted, four have accepted a plea deal and agreed to testify if needed.
Giuliani and Trump have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more
