A federal judge on Thursday threatened to hold former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani in civil contempt for failing to surrender his luxury apartment and other belongings to two Georgia election workers he defamed and owes $148 million. U.S.
District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan had on Oct 22 ordered Giuliani, formerly a U.S. Attorney and personal lawyer to President-elect Donald Trump, to hand over the property to Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea "Shaye" Moss within seven days.
The property would partially satisfy a judgment that a Washington, DC, jury in December 2023 awarded Freeman and Moss, who accused Giuliani of destroying their reputations through lies that they tried to help steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election from Trump.
Freeman and Moss say Giuliani is resisting their collection efforts and ignoring questions about where his property is located. At a hearing on Thursday, Liman gave Giuliani until next week to hand over the property - and warned that he expected Freeman and Moss to ask that Giuliani be held in contempt if he does not cooperate. "He's not going to be in contempt if he's made efforts and it's impossible to comply with the order, but that's the standard that he's going to be held to," Liman said.
Giuliani, 80, told reporters after the hearing that he would turn over everything he was legally required to. "They can have all my property but they're not going to get me to back off from what I believe in," Giuliani said. Aaron Nathan, a lawy.
