NEW YORK (AP) — Rudy Giulian i has filed for chapter, days after being ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation lawsuit introduced by two former election employees in Georgia who mentioned his focusing on of them led to dying threats that made them worry for his or her lives.
In his submitting Thursday, the previous New York Metropolis mayor listed practically $153 million in current or potential money owed, together with near 1,000,000 {dollars} in tax liabilities, cash he owes his legal professionals and lots of tens of millions of {dollars} in potential authorized judgements in lawsuits towards him. He estimated his belongings to be between $1 million and $10 million.
The largest debt is the $148 million he was ordered to pay per week in the past for making false statements in regards to the election employees in Georgia stemming from the 2020 presidential contest.
Ted Goodman, a political adviser and spokesperson for Giuliani, a one-time Republican presidential candidate and high-ranking Justice Division official, mentioned in an announcement that the submitting “needs to be a shock to nobody.”
“No particular person might have fairly believed that Mayor Giuliani would be capable of pay such a excessive punitive quantity,” Goodman mentioned. He mentioned the chapter submitting would give Giuliani “the chance and time to pursue an attraction, whereas offering transparency for his funds beneath the supervision of the chapter court docket, to make sure all collectors are handled equally and pretty all through the method.”
However declaring chapter doubtless won’t erase the $148 million in damages a jury awarded to the previous Georgia election employees, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea’ “Shaye” Moss. Chapter legislation doesn’t permit for the dissolution of money owed that come from a “willful and malicious harm” inflicted on another person.
Final week’s jury verdict was the newest and costliest signal of Giuliani’s mounting monetary pressure, exacerbated by investigations, lawsuits, fines, sanctions, and damages associated to his work serving to then-Republican President Donald Trump attempt to overturn the 2020 election that he misplaced to Democrat Joe Biden.
In September, Giuliani’s former lawyer Robert Costello sued him for about $1.4 million in unpaid authorized payments, alleging that Giuliani breached his retainer settlement by failing to pay invoices in full and a well timed style. Giuliani has requested a choose to dismiss the case, claiming he by no means obtained the invoices at concern. The case is pending.
Costello represented Giuliani from November 2019 to this previous July in issues starting from an investigation into his enterprise dealings in Ukraine, which resulted in an FBI raid on his dwelling and workplace in April 2021, to state and federal investigations of his work within the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss.
In August, the IRS filed a $549,435 tax lien towards Giuliani for the 2021 tax 12 months.
Copies have been filed in Palm Seaside County, Florida, the place he owns a condominium and New York, beneath the identify of his outdoors accounting agency, Mazars USA LLP. That’s the identical agency that Trump used for years earlier than it dropped him as a consumer amid questions on his monetary statements.
Giuliani, nonetheless considerably well-liked amongst conservatives within the metropolis he as soon as ran, hosts a day by day radio present in his hometown on a station owned by a neighborhood Republican grocery retailer magnate. Giuliani additionally hosts a nightly streaming present watched by a number of hundred folks on social media, which he calls “America’s Mayor Stay.”