Rudy Giuliani might not have $148 million lying around, but that doesn’t mean he can shirk the latest blow to his finances, according to top legal experts.
Following a jury’s verdict at a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Friday, the former Donald Trump attorney was ordered to pay the eye-popping sum to two Georgia election workers he defamed after the 2020 election.
The figure is broken up into $33 million for defamation, $75 million in punitive damages, and $40 million for emotional distress to Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss.
“Does he have $148 million? No, I’m not even sure that Rudy Giuliani can afford to pay for Four Seasons landscaping right now,” former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Sunday, referring to the infamous press conference Giuliani hosted for Trump in the parking lot of a Philadelphia landscaping business in the days following the 2020 vote.
“But nonetheless, I think whatever he’s got is now going to be seized by these two plaintiffs,” Katyal said.
Friday’s stunning verdict adds to a long list of legal and financial woes for the former New York City mayor.
According to Katyal, declaring bankruptcy will not shield Giuliani from the ruling, because bankruptcy law protections do not apply to this type of judgment, where the defendant intentionally caused harm.
Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images
Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor, said the election workers’ attorneys can continue pursuing legal avenues to identify Giuliani’s assets — and he predicts they will be “tenacious” about it.
“This kind of judgment is not wiped out by bankruptcy. So they’re entitled to continue looking and to take depositions and discovery,” he said on MSNBC, noting that Giuliani’s refusal to comply with discovery requirements in the first half of the trial was what landed him in this mess.
He said a continued refusal to cooperate could land Giuliani in jail.
“He didn’t say where his assets were. He didn’t say anything about that. If he continues to do that, the one thing that the judge has not yet done, but can do, is put him in jail,” Weissmann said. “So there are still remedies for the judge to make sure that every asset he has is disclosed.”
Money aside, Weissmann touted the significance of the ruling, comparing the two women to E. Jean Carroll, who successfully sued Trump for defamation and rape. (Trump was found liable for sexual abuse, but not rape, in the latter case.)
“The bravery of these two women, like the bravery of E. Jean Carroll, to not be just victims, but to seek legal accountability, is important regardless of whether they ever see a dime of the judgment,” Weissmann said.
Giuliani is also being sued by two voting systems companies over his false 2020 election claims, and by his former attorney, who alleges Giuliani owes him nearly $1.4 million in unpaid legal bills. In May, a woman who said she worked with Giuliani filed a lawsuit alleging he coerced her into sex and owed her nearly $2 million in unpaid wages.
Giuliani also faces criminal charges in Georgia, where he is charged alongside Trump over alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.
Watch Katyal and Weissmann’s analysis on “Inside with Jen Psaki” below.
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