Rudy Giuliani will appear in a New York City court on Thursday to explain to a federal judge why he has not surrendered his valuables as part of a 148 million dollar (£114 million) defamation judgment. US District Judge Lewis Liman ordered the former New York City mayor to report to the court after lawyers for the two former Georgia election workers who were awarded the massive judgment visited Mr Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment last week only to discover it had been cleared out weeks earlier. The judge had set an October 29 deadline for the longtime ally of once-and-future president Donald Trump to surrender many of his possessions to lawyers for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.
The possessions include his five million-dollar (£3.8 million) Upper East Side apartment, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, a shirt signed by New York Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio, dozens of luxury watches and other valuables. Mr Liman originally scheduled a phone conference about the situation, but he changed it to a hearing in Manhattan federal court that Mr Giuliani must attend after the judge learned about the visit to the former mayor’s apartment.
Aaron Nathan, a lawyer for the election workers, wrote in a letter to Mr Liman that the residence was already “substantially empty” when representatives for his clients visited with a moving company official to assess the transportation and storage needs for the property Giuliani was ordered to surr.
