Two Georgia election officials who won a $148 million defamation case against Rudy Giuliani are now asking a federal judge in New York to enforce their ruling, claiming the former U.S. attorney continues to “evade responsibility for his actions and hinders them”.
Plaintiffs' attorneys Ruby Freeman and Wandrea' ArShaye “Shaye” Moss filed the lawsuit to enforce a lien on Friday in the U.S. District for the Southern District of New York.
The women were awarded damages in December over Giuliani's false statement that they were somehow working to steal the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump.
Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 protection shortly after the jury found him liable. But a bankruptcy judge later dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that the former New York mayor had not been transparent about his financial situation.
Now the plaintiffs claim Giuliani is trying to hide behind a Florida law to prevent them from seizing his condo.
They claim that Giuliani is now falsely listing his luxury Palm Beach residence as his primary residence. Under Florida law, a person's “homestead” can be protected from court judgments.
“But this evasion is just as valid as the last few: Mr. Giuliani's own public Internet broadcasts show that he has not actually lived at the Palm Beach Condo since he purported to establish a permanent, actual residence there – and he has “certainly not maintaining it as a 'homestead,'” the filing states.
The plaintiffs accuse the recently disbarred attorney of attempting to “gamble” with Florida's homestead exemption to “protect a multimillion-dollar asset from his creditors.”
Freeman and Moss seek two remedies.
They want an order forcing Mr. Giuliani to release personal property to comply with the judgment and an order appointing the plaintiffs as “administrators with the authority to take possession of both real and personal property that Mr. Giuliani does not release.” take and sell”.
Giuliani “has demonstrated time and time again that he will never voluntarily comply with court orders,” the filing says.
A spokesman for Giuliani called the jury's verdict “objectively unreasonable” and said the Manhattan lawsuit was an attempt to “harass and intimidate” Giuliani.
“This lawsuit has always been intended to censor and harass the mayor and deter others from exercising their right to speak and express their opinions,” Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman said.
The plaintiffs are represented by Aaron Nathan, M. Annie Houghton-Larsen, Michael Gottlieb and Meryl Governski of Willkie Farr & Gallagher; By DuBose by DuBose Miller; and John Langford, Rachel Goodman and Christine Kwon of United to Protect Democracy.
No legal representation has yet appeared for Giuliani.
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