Ex-attorney Rudy Giuliani will go to trial in New York Thursday as he disputes whether he has to turn over his Florida condominium and World Series rings to the Georgia election workers he falsely accused of election fraud, as the former mayor has been forced to turn over his assets to satisfy the $148 million he owes the plaintiffs—and has now been held in contempt twice in the process.
Rudy Giuliani arrives at federal court in Washington D.C. on Jan. 10.
Giuliani is in the process of turning over his assets to election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, after being ordered to pay them $148 million for defaming them by making false claims tying them to election fraud in the 2020 election.
While the court has already ordered Giuliani to turn over most of his assets—including his New York City apartment, Mercedes-Benz and sports memorabilia—there’s still a dispute over whether he has to turn over his Florida residence and his World Series rings.
Giuliani does not want to turn over the condo, which The New York Times notes is valued at approximately $3.5 million, because it is primary and sole remaining residence, citing a Florida law that protects a person’s primary residence from being seized by creditors.
He argues he should also not have to turn over the New York Yankees World Series rings because he gave them to his son Andrew Giuliani and thus they’re no longer his property to turn over.
Freeman and Moss are seeking to take possession of both the Florida condo and the World Series rings, in order to collect the total judgment Giuliani has been ordered to pay them.
The dispute will be hashed out at what’s expected to be a three-day trial in New York federal court, which will only be overseen by a judge and will not have a jury.
Though the trial was slated to begin at 9 a.m. EST Thursday, Giuliani had not yet arrived to court as of 9:45 a.m., according to Politico.
The trial is expected to start Thursday and wrap up Tuesday with closing arguments. Giuliani will testify at the trial along with other witnesses including his son Andrew Giuliani, but the court ruled Tuesday to exclude two of his defense witnesses—spokesperson Ted Goodman and friend Monsignor Alan Placa, a retired priest—which the New York Daily News reports is because they failed to turn over any documents backing up their testimony to the plaintiffs. U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman, who’s overseeing the case, also called Giuliani’s attempt to have them testify a “thinly-veiled attempt to re-litigate my decision not to adjourn this trial,” the Daily News reports.
Giuliani’s trial comes after he was already held in contempt last week in the New York case for failing to turn over assets to Freeman and Moss, including money from his bank account, paperwork for his New York City apartment and some of his valuable possessions, like a shirt signed by baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. Liman has not yet imposed any sanctions on Giuliani for contempt, but scheduled a hearing on the matter for January 29. The former New York City mayor was also then separately held in contempt for a second time last week in his other case against the Georgia election workers—the original defamation dispute, rather than the separate court proceedings over his assets—because the court found he continued to defame the plaintiffs despite a court order forbidding him from doing so. Penalties have also not yet been levied against him in that case.
Giuliani has denied any wrongdoing in the cases against him, including after the $148 million judgment, and told the court he had not turned over some assets because he believed the order directing him to do so was overbroad and a “trap,” according to the Associated Press. Goodman and Giuliani decried the case over the former attorney’s assets as an “ongoing politically motivated vendetta against Mayor Giuliani” in a statement after Liman held Giuliani in contempt last week, writing the plaintiffs’ lawyers “might be happy to fight to take away Mayor Giuliani’s most cherished personal belongings … but they can never take away his extraordinary record of public service.”
Giuliani was ordered to pay $148 million to Freeman and Moss in December 2023 based on claims he repeatedly made about them following the 2020 election, which they testified had upended their lives and led to widespread threats against them. His claims have been disproven, with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office declaring them “false and unsubstantiated” following an investigation. The former Trump attorney declared bankruptcy shortly after the nine-figure judgment against him, and an appeals court upheld the judgment against him in April. Giuliani’s ongoing legal saga against the election workers is only one piece in a broader slew of legal issues he’s faced since he led President-elect Donald Trump’s unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. He’s also had his law license revoked, been indicted on criminal charges in both Georgia and Arizona and faced other defamation cases brought by voting machine companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Both of those civil cases, which involve false election fraud claims involving the companies’ voting machines, remain pending. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and denies any wrongdoing, and continues to falsely assert there was widespread election fraud in 2020, which there is no evidence to support.