NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) – The two former Georgia election officials who won a $148 million judgment against Rudolph Giuliani have filed a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, accusing him of trying to make his luxury Florida condo unaffordable for them.
In a complaint filed Friday, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea' “Shaye” Moss challenged Giuliani's July 13 declaration that the Palm Beach condo was his new primary residence.
They called it a “brazen” attempt by the former New York mayor to take advantage of a Florida state law that protects a person's “residence” from court rulings.
Giuliani made the statement a day after a federal judge dismissed his bankruptcy filing that would have protected him from the $148 million judgment.
Citing statements made on his daily Internet broadcasts, Freeman and Moss said Giuliani has since lived mostly or exclusively elsewhere and only pretends to live in Florida to evade responsibility for his actions.
“He is attempting to 'game' Florida's property tax exemption to protect a multimillion-dollar estate from his creditors,” their lawsuit in Manhattan federal court said.
Freeman and Moss want court permission to enforce a lien on Giuliani's condo on August 8 and, if they so choose, to seize and sell the property. Giuliani also owns a home in Manhattan.
“The appeal of the objectively unreasonable $148 million verdict has not even been heard, and yet opposing counsel continues to take steps to harass and intimidate the mayor,” Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman said in an email.
“This lawsuit has always been intended to censor and intimidate the mayor and prevent others from exercising their right to express their opinions,” Goodman added.
Last December, a jury in Washington ordered Giuliani to pay the $148 million to Freeman and Moss, who had accused him of defaming them and destroying their reputations by lying about trying to help Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Giuliani, 80, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the following week. The federal judge in charge dismissed the case after finding that Giuliani had not provided a complete overview of his finances and had failed to meet court deadlines.
That dismissal, which Giuliani had also requested, eliminated the possibility of a trustee taking over his finances and gave him freedom to appeal the $148 million judgment. But it also stripped him of legal protection from creditors like Freeman and Moss.
The case is Freeman et al. v. Giuliani, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 24-06563.
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Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis
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