Rudy Giuliani's Mother-daughter Defamation Victims Still Haven't Received Millions Of Dollars Of His Assets
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has yet to turn over key assets, according to lawyers for defamed mother-daughter election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
- In December, two Georgia election workers won a $148M defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani.
- Thanksgiving is the one-month anniversary of Giuliani's deadline to turn over assets.
- Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss have received a car and apartment without the paperwork to sell either.
Last month, a federal judge in Manhattan gave Rudy Giuliani a deadline: he had until October 28 to turn over millions of dollars in real estate, sports memorabilia, cash, and jewelry to the mother-daughter Georgia election workers he defamed after the 2020 election.
It's now exactly one month later — Thanksgiving — and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, still have little to thank him for.
Their lawyers say that, to date, the only thing they've collected free and clear are a handful of Guiliani's watches.
Yes, Giuliani has turned over his Mercedes and he has vacated his New York City apartment — but he has yet to provide Freeman and Moss with the vehicle title and co-op shares they need to turn these two assets into actual cash.
Other Giuliani assets are simply AWOL, including a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey that has apparently vanished among decades of his belongings inside a storage facility in Ronkonkoma, New York.
"If they can't find it, they can't find it," Giuliani, 80, told Business Insider of Joltin' Joe's jersey on Tuesday, after a court hearing on the case. "It's in the warehouse, as far as I know."
The one-time lawyer to Donald Trump meanwhile faces contempt-of-court fines and possibly a jail term for continuing to falsely accuse Freeman and Moss of election rigging on his nightly "America's Mayor" livestreams.
Giuliani — who said Tuesday he still "consults" with the president elect — also continues to call himself a victim.
"I don't have a car, I don't have a credit card, I don't have cash," he complained to the judge in court on Tuesday. "I don't have a penny that isn't tied up by them," he said of Freeman and Moss.
Here, according to court testimony and filings, is the latest on what Giuliani has failed to turn over.
Lawyers for two defamed election workers say Rudy Giuliani removed expensive art, furniture, and sports memorabilia from his apartment before they took ownership.SDNY court documents
A $5.6M Manhattan apartment
Giuliani's most valuable single asset is a three-bedroom, 10th-floor, corner co-op apartment he owned outright — without a mortgage — on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
He was ordered to turn the property's proprietary lease and co-op share copies to Freeman and Moss by October 28 — along with such valuable furnishings as the signed DiMaggio jersey and signed photos of Yankees Stadium and Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson that used to hang on the apartment walls.
Giuliani's lawyers have since said he has lost his copy of the shares and lease, which are still in the name of "Judith and Rudolph Giuliani." Giuliani divorced Judith Nathan, his third wife, in 2019, but never removed her name from the paperwork when he bought out her share of the co-op, his lawyers said.
Without the updated shares and lease, the apartment cannot be sold.
As for the furnishings, Giuliani's lawyers say these were moved to a patriotic event space and storage warehouse in the Long Island hamlet of Ronkonkoma, New York.
The Freeman-Moss attorneys said Friday that they have been unable to find any of Giuliani's artwork and sports memorabilia for the apartment. If these are indeed in the warehouse, as they put it in court papers two weeks ago, they are "commingled with other property of questionable value," including Giuliani's old drapes, blankets, "Christmas supplies," and a "small cigar box."
"We've sort of run out of patience," attorney Aaron Nathan said in court Tuesday, adding his team searched the warehouse, and the sports memorabilia is still unaccounted for. On Tuesday, a judge ordered Giuliani to separate these items from his other belongings inside the warehouse.
Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother Ruby Freeman.AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
A $3.5M Palm Beach condo
Giuliani has claimed his $3.5 million Palm Beach condo, which he also owns outright, is his primary residence and so exempted under Florida law from civil seizure.
A January 16 trial — before federal Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan — will determine if Giuliani can keep the property.
The trial will also determine if Freeman and Moss will get three Yankees World Series rings — valued at around $50,000 each — that Giuliani says are not his to turn over because he gave them to his son, Andrew, in 2018.
"I told you when I got these that they would be yours someday," the younger Giuliani recalled his father telling him, according to a sworn court filing from last month.
Freeman and Moss have subpoenaed the elder Giuliani's tax accountants, Mazars, USA, to see if he declared gifting the rings to his son.
$2M from Donald Trump's campaign
Giuliani declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy soon after a federal jury in Washington, DC, set his $148 judgment last December — his penalty for the racist death threats and other harassment Freeman and Moss suffered after what the judge said were his "extreme and outrageous" defamation.
A bankruptcy judge dismissed the bankruptcy case within six months, citing Giuliani's "failure to provide even basic disclosure" of his assets.
But Giuliani did disclose that his largest debt was $2 million he said the 2020 Trump campaign owed him for his work before and after the election.
It will now be up to Freeman and Moss to pursue the campaign for that money, through still more litigation if necessary.
Lauren Bacall's 1980 Mercedes
Earlier this month, after weeks of what the Freeman-Moss attorneys called "foot-dragging," Giuliani drove 1980 blue Mercedes convertible, once owned by actor Lauren Bacall, to a Florida storage unit.
Problem was, there is no title. Giuliani says he can't find it. On Tuesday, his lawyer said that the title has been lost, and that his client's efforts to get a replacement title have so far failed.
"The car keys without the title is really meaningless, US Court Judge Liman told Giuliani's attorney Joseph Cammarata.
"Your client is a competent person. He was the United States attorney for this district," added Liman. "He knows he can apply for a title for the car."
Giuliani served as US attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989.
Giuliani and his lawyer promised the judge Tuesday they would "immediately" secure a replacement title to the car.