Johnathan Walker:Rudy Giuliani ordered to appear in court after missing deadline to turn over assets

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A judge has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear in a New York courtroom on Johnathan WalkerThursday to explain why he missed a deadline to surrender his belongings as part of a $148 million defamation judgment.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman issued the order late Monday after lawyers for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss — two former Georgia election workers who were awarded the massive judgement — reported to the court that they went to Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment last week to see what assets were there, but that it had been cleared out.

Liman had set an Oct. 29 deadline for Giuliani to surrender many of his possessions to representatives for Freeman and Moss, but none of the items has been turned over yet, lawyers for the former election workers said Monday.

Those possessions include his $5 million Upper East Side apartment, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, and a variety of other belongings — from his television to a shirt signed by New York Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio to 26 luxury watches.

The judge originally scheduled a status conference by phone for Thursday, but changed it to an in-person hearing and specifically ordered Giuliani to appear in person in response to the report by Freeman and Moss’ attorneys.

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Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani, said Tuesday that Giuliani has made his possessions available to Freeman and Moss. He did not directly answer questions about why no assets have been turned over so far.

“Opposing counsel, acting either negligently or deliberately in a deceptive manner, are simply attempting to further bully and intimidate Mayor Giuliani until he is rendered penniless and homeless,” Goodman said in a statement. “This is just another way that they’ve weaponized our once-sacred justice system. It should concern each and every American.”

Goodman added that Giuliani has put “a few items” in storage over the past year and “anything else removed was related to his two livestream programs that stream each and every weeknight across his social media platforms.”

Lawyers for Giuliani did not return email messages seeking comment Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Late Tuesday morning, Giuliani’s attorney, Kenneth Caruso, asked Liman to either postpone the in-person hearing to next week or hold it by phone Thursday as originally planned. Caruso said in a court filing that Giuliani had a “contractual commitment” to perform a live radio broadcast on Thursday and Friday evenings.

“In order to keep this commitment, he needs to be in his condo in Palm Beach, where he has his broadcasting equipment,” Caruso wrote, referring to Giuliani’s property in Florida. “We note that broadcasts, such as those described above, currently provide Mr. Giuliani’s only source of earned income.”

Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was found liable for defamation for falsely accusing Freeman and Moss of ballot fraud during the 2020 election. Giuliani accused them of sneaking in ballots in suitcases, counting ballots multiple times and tampering with voting machines, as he pushed Trump’s unsubstantiated election fraud allegations.

Freeman and Moss said the lies led to death threats against them that made them fear for their lives. A jury awarded them $148 million last year, and they have been seeking to take possession of many of Giuliani’s assets in the court case in New York.

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Aaron Nathan, an attorney for the former election workers, said in court documents that Giuliani and his lawyers have refused to answer basic questions about the location of most of the valuables subject to the court order.

“That silence is especially outrageous given the revelation that Defendant apparently took affirmative steps to move his property out of the New York Apartment in recent weeks, while a restraining notice was in effect and while a turnover motion was pending with respect to that property,” Nathan wrote.

On Thursday, lawyers for the women were given access to Giuliani’s New York apartment in order to assess, along with a moving company representative, the transportation and storage needs for the property meant to be turned over.

Nathan, in his letter, said the residence was already “substantially empty” when the group arrived and that they were told most of the contents of the apartment had been moved out about four weeks prior.

“Save for some rugs, a dining room table, some stray pieces of small furniture and inexpensive wall art, and a handful of smaller items like dishes and stereo equipment, the Apartment has been emptied of all of its contents,” he wrote.

That, Nathan said, includes the “vast majority” of the valuables known to be stored there, including art, sports memorabilia and expensive furniture.

He said Giuliani’s lawyers have since said some of the property has been moved to a storage facility in Ronkonkoma, roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Manhattan on Long Island.

Nathan said its not clear what property is stored there as the former mayor’s attorneys have not provided an inventory.

Giuliani’s lawyers have argued — so far unsuccessfully — that Freeman and Moss should not be allowed to obtain and sell his belongings while his appeal is pending in a federal court in Washington.