Two former Georgia election workers have filed a civil lawsuit against former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and alleged he is trying to shield his assets following a $148 million defamation judgment against him.
The lawsuit from Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss claims Giuliani falsely declared his Palm Beach, Florida, condominium as his new primary residence to exploit Florida’s homestead law, which protects primary residences from court judgments. This declaration followed a federal judge’s dismissal of Giuliani’s bankruptcy case in July, which previously protected him from the judgment.
Freeman and Moss argue that Giuliani has not made the condominium his primary residence and noted his regular online broadcasts from other locations.
“As of this filing, the publicly available evidence shows that Mr. Giuliani has spent at least 34 days of that 47 day period somewhere else. As for the other days, Plaintiffs are simply unaware of any evidence that Mr. Giuliani has occupied the Condo, or been physically present in Florida at all,” the attorneys for the pair of election workers wrote in a 17-page complaint.
The ex-election workers’ lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks to enforce an Aug. 8 lien against Giuliani’s condominium, which allows Freeman and Moss to seize and sell the property if necessary.
In December, a Washington, D.C., jury ordered Giuliani to pay the $148 million judgment for defamation and discovered he spread false claims that Freeman and Moss helped rig the 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case was dismissed last month after a judge found that he failed to provide full financial disclosure and meet court deadlines. This dismissal removed legal protections from creditors and allowed Giuliani to appeal the judgment.
Ted Goodman, a representative for Giuliani, told the Washington Examiner the new complaint is “designed to harass and intimidate” the former mayor and Trump attorney, adding “The appeal of the objectively unreasonable $148 million verdict hasn’t even been heard.”
“This lawsuit has always been designed to censor and bully the mayor, and to deter others from exercising their right to speak up and to speak out. America is facing an existential crisis,” Goodman said, calling the complaint another example that “we now live in a time where the justice system has been weaponized” against matters pertaining to speech.
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The pair of election workers sued Giuliani for defamation over comments that included allegations that they passed USB drives like “vials of heroin or cocaine” to tamper with voting machines during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Both Freeman and Moss were cleared of wrongdoing after an investigation by Georgia Authorities.
The former New York City mayor, who has deeply struggled with his finances in the wake of this costly litigation, agreed in May to stop levying accusations against Freeman and Moss, according to court records.