Rudy Giuliani must hand over control of his New York apartment, a 1980s Mercedes-Benz that once belonged to Lauren Bacall, several luxury watches and many other assets to two Georgia campaign workers he defamed.
Lewis Liman, a U.S. district judge in New York, named Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss as receivers of the property and gave the former New York mayor and Trump confidant seven days to turn over the assets.
A jury ruled that Giuliani owes them about $150 million for spreading lies about her after the 2020 election, although Giuliani is appealing the verdict. Liman authorized the two women to begin selling the assets immediately.
“The road to justice for Ruby and Shaye has been long, but they never wavered,” said Aaron Nathan, an attorney representing Freeman and Moss. “Last December, a jury returned a strong verdict in their favor, and we are proud that today’s verdict puts that verdict into action.”
“We are proud that our clients will finally receive some of the compensation they are entitled to for Giuliani’s actions,” Nathan said. “This result should send a strong signal that those who consciously choose to spread disinformation will have to pay a price.”
A spokesman for Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In addition to his Upper East Side apartment, Giuliani was also ordered to turn in several Yankees memorabilia and about two dozen watches. The two women are also entitled to fees the Trump campaign owes Giuliani for his legal work in 2020.
Giuliani first listed the three-bedroom apartment in 2023 for $6.5 million, but dropped the price to just over $5.1 million in the fall.
Liman has not yet ordered Giuliani to hand over a separate condominium in Palm Beach because a legal battle there is ongoing. Instead, Liman issued an order prohibiting Giuliani from selling the condo while this dispute was ongoing.
After losing the defamation case last fall, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying Freeman and Moss the money they were owed. A judge dismissed the bankruptcy case earlier this year.
After the 2020 election, Giuliani amplified a misleading video falsely accusing Freeman and Moss of illegal activity while counting ballots in Atlanta on election night in 2020. No problem. They were also officially cleared of any wrongdoing by investigators.
The video and the lie about the two women were at the center of Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia. The ex-president mentioned Freeman by name in a 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and urged her to overturn the vote.
Both women have rarely been seen in public since the incident, but have spoken about how their lives have changed as a result. They received constant death threats, were chased from their homes and lost their jobs. During the libel trial in Washington DC, they spoke about the depression they faced after the election.
Giuliani, who lost his law license in New York and Washington DC, has had few regrets about his false statements. During the trial, he gave a press conference on the courthouse steps in which he insisted that everything he said about Freeman and Moss was true.
Freeman and Moss also recently settled a defamation lawsuit with the Gateway Pundit, a right-wing news site that was the first to publicly identify them and amplify the video. Although the terms of this settlement were confidential, the site deleted all articles mentioning the two women and published a statement confirming that they had done nothing wrong.
Freeman and Moss also settled a lawsuit with One America News Network, another right-wing broadcaster, which aired an apology.
All of these cases are being closely watched as they represent the greatest accountability yet for those spreading lies about the 2020 election. Scientists are closely watching how effective defamation law can be in curbing misinformation.
Giuliani is also facing criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
