Bankruptcy is never a situation that any American wants to face that they’ve been pushed to. Allowing courts and lawyers to look over your assets and determine what you can survive without and what you have that’s necessary is humiliating, and dehumanizing in a way that is difficult for many people to comprehend. It’s a situation that nobody wants to get into, but especially high-profile figures with a lot to lose.
Giuliani Filing Bankruptcy
Rudy Giuliani is one such figure who is now facing the challenges of a bankruptcy claim. Giuiani filed bankruptcy last year after a Georgia jury awarded two Georgia election workers $148 million dollars in a defamation suit that Giuliani lost, and he’s seeking to mitigate his debt with the filing.
This is quite the shame, for someone like Giuliani. He’s now known for his participation in election denialism and his relationship with Donald Trump, but once upon a time, he was one of the biggest names in America for what he did, and what he represented to the American public.
Before Donald Trump
Rudy Giuliani served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. This was during a period of significant change for New York and the country, and Giuliani was an incredibly popular mayor for the city during this period of massive social and cultural change.
Prior to his time as mayor, Giuliani made a name for himself in New York and the country by heading up the 1980’s federal prosecution of the New York City mafia bosses as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. This was the Mafia Commission Trial, which indicted 11 organized crime figures – including the heads of New York City’s “Five Families” – under the RICO act.
RICO Individuals Found Guilty
Eight of the individuals were found guilty under RICO in that trial, which Giuliani headed up, and most of them were sentenced to 100 years in prison on January 13, 1987. This is the maximum punishment available under that law, and many were thrilled to see so many crime bosses finally face consequences after skirting the law by technicalities for years.
Giuliani’s participation in that case – and the subsequent jailings that occurred because of it – was a boon to him when he subsequently ran for Mayor. He ran twice, first in 1989, when he lost, and then again in 1993, when he ultimately won. He was reelected in 1997 when he ran again, with his tough on crime campaign, and for a while, Giuliani was known as “America’s mayor.”
Charged with RICO, Himself
The irony of Giuliani is that the case that he was once so famous for seems to have come back to bite him in the twenty-first century. Giuliani is now one of the defendants in a Georgia state RICO trial, for his alleged participation in scheming to overthrow the government with former President, Donald Trump.
Giuliani first came to Trump and began advising him during his 2016 campaign and during the early days of his administration. After that, he joined the Trump legal team in 2018, and remained on it until the 2020 election, his actions of which have led to accusations that the pair – and more around them – were engaging in corruption and profiteering.
Representing Trump in the 2020 Election Suits
Following the 2020 presidential election, Giuliani represented Trump in multiple lawsuits that were filed in order to overturn the election results. He made false claims about election voting machines, polling place fraud, and an international communist conspiracy.
All of Giuliani’s claims have since been debunked, but much of the harm has already been done. Giuliani has been pointed to as one of the inflammatory figures that led to the attack on the capitol on January 6, though he has claimed zero responsibility for that event, and has even gone so far as to claim that these people were simply Americans doing their constitutional duty.
Hot Water for Giuliani
Giuliani was also listed as an informal co-conspirator in the federal case against Donald Trump, which has charged him for multiple felonies regarding his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election. He wasn’t listed as a defendant in that trial, but that doesn’t mean that Giuliani is out of hot water for his participation in election denialism.
And his culpability doesn’t merely extend to the Georgia RICO case either. Giuliani has found himself subjected to multiple lawsuits for the claims that he made in the months following the 2020 election, including a defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic for defamation regarding his claims against their voting machines, and a defamation lawsuit from two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
A Georgia Defamation Lawsuit
Freeman and Moss filed a defamation lawsuit against Giuliani in 2021, after he falsely accused them of manipulating vote tallies. He accused them of “passing around USB ports as if they were vials of heroin or cocaine” and engaging in “surreptitious illegal activity.” He cited video footage of the women which, according to them, shows them sharing a ginger mint.
Moss testified before the United States House of Representatives that Giuliani’s remarks were incredibly damaging to her and her mother, subjecting them to a host of racist threats including one that threatened the pair with lynching.
A Massive Judgment Against Giuliani
Giuliani was ordered to pay the women’s election fees in July of 2023 as punishment for his team not turning over any evidence to support the claims that he had made against them. That wasn’t the end of his financial woes, though, because in December of that year, Giuliani was ultimately found liable for having defamed the women and was ordered to pay them $148 million.
One of Giuliani’s lawyers suggested that he file bankruptcy, in order to wipe away his obligations to the suit. However, Judge Howell ordered swift payment of the damages a few days after the trial concluded, stating that they were concerned that Giuliani would use time in order to conceal or hide his assets.
Filing for Bankruptcy
On December 21, 2023, Giuliani proceeded to file for bankruptcy. That wasn’t the end of the story, though. In January of this year, Freeman and Moss accused Giuliani of taking advantage of the bankruptcy system in order to avoid paying the damages that he owed them, and was ordered to appear in court regarding his finances in February.
The results of that hearing didn’t go well, because in March, creditors against Giuliani filed a motion with the courts to force Giuliani to sell his Florida condo in order to pay the judgment for Freeman and Moss.
A Highly Unfavorable Outcome
This was not a favorable outcome for Giuliani, and he’s made sure that anyone relevant knows it. He has gone to the mainstream media and online, claiming that he could be left “homeless” if the courts were to force him to sell his $3.5 million Florida condo.
He has even engaged in “histrionics,” in the way that he speaks about the issue, which his creditors have firmly refuted.
A Filing from the Creditors
“The Debtor also resorts to histrionics, asking ‘Surely the Committee does not intend the Debtor to join the ranks of the homeless?’ It seems hardly worth pointing out that there is a vast gulf of housing options available between residing in an approximately $3.5 million Palm Beach condominium and homelessness,” said a filing by Philip C. Dublin, an attorney for the creditors.
Dublin added, “moreover, there is plenty of case law establishing the fact that ‘[a] debtor cannot file a chapter 11 petition and claim an entitlement to live in the style to which he or she has become accustomed.’”
Contradictions Upon Contradictions
Giuliani has also claimed that he needs the Florida condo in order to record his podcast, and that he is actually saving money by not needing to pay for a podcast studio and residence in both New York City and Florida.
The creditors have refuted this claim as ridiculous, pointing out that it contradicts Giuliani’s statement after filing for bankruptcy. Despite this, Giuliani’s lawyers have claimed that he could be subject to irreparable harm if he were forced to sell the condo, and the Freeman judgment was later overturned.
An Ongoing Case
The case is ongoing, but the judge seems sympathetic to his plight. Since the filing from the creditors on April 1, the judge in the case has ruled that he can keep the Florida condo, despite the judge’s concerns with his spending habits.
Whether the judgment will be overturned remains to be seen. Giuliani seems determined to fight the case and preserve his good name, though that may ultimately be a lost cause. Regardless, it’s just another blow to the former mayor in the name of his support for Donald Trump, and he will have to face the consequences whether he likes it or not.
