Rudy Giuliani Creditors Come Knocking

Creditors are stepping up their efforts against former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, seeking to compel him to sell off a major asset to begin paying off his legal debts.

Giuliani, who also previously served as a key lawyer for former President Donald Trump, is currently facing down a penalty of $148 million after he was found liable in court for defaming two Georgia election workers, the mother-daughter pair Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. In the wake of the 2020 election, as the former mayor became a significant proponent of Trump's false claims about the widespread election fraud, Giuliani spread baseless conspiracy theories that the pair had committed election fraud while counting ballots in Fulton County, Georgia.

Freeman and Moss said in the lawsuit that the claims about them, which were amplified considerably by Giuliani, resulted in them receiving a torrent of harassment and threats. Following the verdict against him, the former mayor told reporters that he did not "regret a damn thing" about the comments he made, and decried the "absurdity" of the penalty amount, which resulted in him filing for bankruptcy last year. He did, however, lament the "abominable" and "deplorable" threats made against Freeman and Moss, which he still insisted he had "nothing to do with."

On Friday, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors took to bankruptcy court to file a motion against Giuliani. In seeking to get the former mayor to begin paying off his defamation penalty debt, the motion seeks to compel him to sell off his $3.5 million condominium in Florida.

As laid out in the motion's arguments, Giuliani predominantly resides in New York and, following his bankruptcy filing, has "no credible argument that he is entitled to live there."

"On several occasions, the Debtor has emphasized his limited assets available for
distribution to creditors-according to the Debtor's counsel, 'there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,'" the motion explained. "Of this purported limited pool of assets disclosed by the Debtor, the Florida Condo is a key asset, and the proceeds thereof will be available to satisfy the claims of his creditors."

It continued: "Critically, the Debtor-a New York domiciliary who has elected New York State exemptions has not and cannot claim a homestead exemption with respect to the Florida Condo. Since it is a nonexempt asset, the Debtor cannot retain the Florida Condo, and he has no credible argument that he is entitled to live there following the conclusion of his chapter 11 case. Any proposal by the Debtor to both claim a New York State homestead exemption for the NYC Apartment and retain his nonexempt multimillion-dollar Florida Condo cannot withstand legal scrutiny."

A hearing to considering the creditors' motion is currently scheduled for April 4 in New York City.

Newsweek reached out to representatives for Giuliani via email on Saturday morning for comment.

Giuliani's attorney in the civil case, Joe Sibley, previously argued during the case that a major penalty against his client would amount to a financial "death penalty," given his mounting money problems.