Rudy Giuliani gave control of a New York City apartment, a 1980s Mercedes Benz that once belonged to Lauren Bacall, several luxury watches, and many other assets to the Georgia election official he slandered. Must be transferred to two people.
U.S. District Judge Louis Lehman in New York named Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shay Moss as receivers of the assets and gave the former New York mayor and Trump aide seven days to hand over the assets. gave.
A jury ruled that Giuliani owed about $150 million for spreading lies about them after the 2020 election, but Giuliani has appealed the verdict. There is. Lehman gave the two women permission to begin selling their assets immediately.
“The road to justice for Ruby and Shay has been long, but they never wavered,” said attorney Aaron Nathan, representing Freeman and Moss. “Last December, the jury returned a strong verdict in our favor, and I am proud that today’s verdict makes that verdict a reality.”
“I am proud that our clients will finally begin receiving some of the compensation they are entitled to for Mr. Giuliani’s actions,” Nathan said in a statement. “This result should send a strong message that those who deliberately choose to spread disinformation will have to pay a price.”
A spokesperson for Mr. Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Giuliani was ordered to surrender his Upper East Side apartment, as well as several pieces of Yankees memorabilia and about 20 watches. The two women also have the right to pay fees owed to Giuliani by the Trump campaign for his 2020 legal work.
Giuliani first listed the three-bedroom apartment in 2023 for $6.5 million, but lowered the price to just over $5.1 million this fall.
Mr. Liman did not order Mr. Giuliani to hand over another condominium so far as the legal dispute continues in Palm Beach. Mr. Liman instead issued an order barring Mr. Giuliani from selling the condo while the dispute continues.
After losing a defamation lawsuit last fall, Mr. Giuliani declared bankruptcy to avoid paying back money to Mr. Freeman and Mr. Moss. A judge dismissed the bankruptcy case earlier this year.
After the 2020 election, Giuliani amplified a misleading video falsely accusing Freeman and Moss of misconduct during vote counting operations in Atlanta on election night 2020. Giuliani continued to do so even after Georgia election officials said the video showed two women at work. No problem. They have also been formally cleared of wrongdoing by law enforcement authorities.
The videos and lies about the two women became central to Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s election results. The former president mentioned Freeman’s name in a 2021 call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and called for the vote to be overturned.
Both women have rarely appeared in public since the incident, but have spoken out about how it forever changed their lives. They received constant death threats, were forced to leave their homes, and lost their jobs. During their defamation trial in Washington, D.C., they spoke about the depression they faced after the election.
Mr. Giuliani has had his law license revoked in New York and Washington, D.C., but has shown little remorse for his false statements. During the trial, he held a press conference on the courthouse steps and maintained that everything he said about Freeman and Moss was true.
Mr. Freeman and Mr. Moss recently also settled a defamation lawsuit with Gateway Pundit, the far-right news site that published their identities publicly for the first time and amplified the video. Although the terms of the settlement were confidential, the site removed all articles mentioning the two women and posted a notice acknowledging that they had done nothing wrong.
Mr. Freeman and Mr. Moss also settled a lawsuit with One America News Network, another far-right network that aired the apology.
All of these cases are being closely watched as they represent the most significant accountability yet for those who spread lies about the 2020 election. Scholars are watching to understand how powerful defamation law can be in suppressing misinformation.
Giuliani also faces criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
