NEW YORK– Former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani will be the first witness at a trial over whether he can keep his Florida condominium and three World Series rings or must surrender them to comply with a Defamation judgment worth $148 million awarded to two election workers in Georgia.
The processheard without a jury, begins Thursday morning in a federal court in Manhattan.
Giuliani, 80, will testify before the same judge last week found him contemptuous for failing to pass on information about some of his assets to the women’s lawyers. As punishment, Judge Lewis J. Liman banned Giuliani from presenting any evidence.
Giuliani, who served as personal attorney to newly elected President Donald Trump for a time during his first term, was also found in contempt Last week in Washington DC, a judge there ruled that Giuliani continued to defame election workers by repeating false claims that they had corruptly counted votes during the 2020 presidential election.
The final proceedings will not be to re-examine whether Giuliani defamed the women or the amount of the judgment against him, both issues that have been decided, but to determine whether he can keep certain valuable assets rather than transfer them wear. .
Among them is his condominium in Palm Beach, Florida, which he can hold on to if he can prove it is his homestead. The former mayor says he took up residence there in January 2024, but attorneys for the election workers say he continued to operate as if his New York apartment was his residence until it was surrendered in the fall as part of the verdict.
Also at stake are three World Series rings that Giuliani said he gave to his son Andrew in 2018.
At a recent hearing, Giuliani said he is “not impoverished” but does not have access to most of his remaining assets.
“Everything I have is tied up. I don’t have a car. I don’t have a credit card. I don’t have any cash. I can’t access bank accounts that would really be mine because they…” .. stop orders on e.g. my social security account, which they are not entitled to,” he said.
Lawyers for the election workers say Giuliani listed the Manhattan apartment as his residence the rings as his property when he filed for bankruptcy in December 2023, a filing that was rejected six months later by a judge who accused him of “uncooperative behavior,” self-dealing and a lack of transparency.
Giuliani said during a deposition last month that George Steinbrenner, the late owner of the New York Yankees, gave him the rings in 2002, even though he insisted on paying for them, telling Steinbrenner, “These are for Andrew.” He testified that he immediately gave one to Andrew and kept three others for safekeeping. He estimated their total value at $27,000.
Attorneys for the election workers say Giuliani, a lifelong Yankees fan who sometimes wore the rings, never reported them as a gift to his son in tax records, even though he was scrupulous about reporting gifts when he filed taxes. And they say the son never bought insurance for the rings or reported them on his own tax returns.
Giuliani’s total assets are not expected to be much more than $10 million. The Palm Beach condominium is believed to be worth more than $3 million.
He has already surrendered a New York apartment worth about $5 million, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, numerous luxury watches and other belongings.
The election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, won the defamation judgment after they said Giiuliani’s lies about the theft of the 2020 presidential election led to death threats that left them fearing for their lives.