(AFP) – A judge instructed Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, to turn over valuables and his luxury Manhattan apartment on Tuesday to two election workers he was found to have defamed. In December 2023, a federal jury in Washington ordered him to pay $148 million to Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss for repeatedly making false claims that they engaged in 2020 election fraud.
Giuliani was found liable in 2023 by US District Judge Beryl Howell of defaming Freeman and Moss, both Fulton County poll workers, with his 2020 election lies on behalf of former president Trump. An eight-person federal jury awarded Freeman and Moss more than $16 million each for defamation, $20 million each for emotional distress and $75 million in punitive damages. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in December 2023 over the order.
“Defendant is ordered… to transfer all personal property specified in the list below… including cash accounts, jewelry and valuables, a legal claim for unpaid attorneys’ fees, and his interest in his Madison Avenue co-op apartment,” according to a Manhattan court filing. Giuliani has seven days to make the transfer to a receivership under the control of Freeman and Moss, it said.
The former mayor of New York, who led Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the results of the election, posted a video of Freeman and Moss that falsely accused them of engaging in fraud during ballot counting and made numerous other baseless claims about them. Freeman and Moss, who are Black, told the jury during the defamation trial that Giuliani’s false accusations had upended their lives and made them the target of racist threats.
© 2024 AFP
