Judge scolds Giuliani for not turning over assets, including car he’s driving

Trump ally and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani got a tongue-lashing Thursday in federal court after missing a deadline to turn over valuables to two election workers he defamed, including one asset, a vintage Mercedes, that he took for a drive to vote in Florida. He owes the women, Ruby Freeman and daughter Wandrea Moss, millions in damages.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman, upon being informed that Giuliani is the only person listed on a document who has knowledge of his assets — and that he wants his name removed — called the request “farcical.”

“My expectation is you’re going to answer that question truthfully and fully,” Liman said, adding that someone else “in the world” must have knowledge of Giuliani’s various assets.  

Hearings in the matter were being conducted remotely, but Liman ordered Giuliani to appear Thursday in person after learning that Giuliani had not met his obligations to the two women. Lawyers for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea Moss, said they went to Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment last week and discovered that it had been emptied out, frustrating their efforts to catalog and obtain his assets.

“That’s the one piece of property sitting here in Manhattan that can’t be moved. Everything else has been game playing,” said Aaron Nathan, a lawyer for Freeman and Moss.

“We’ve asked over and over where this stuff is, and the defendant has refused to answer,” Nathan said.

Kenneth Caruso, one of Giuliani’s lawyers, said some of the items are now in a storage facility in suburban Ronkonkoma, New York, and claimed Giuliani has “no control” of it.

Liman warned Caruso to “consider your words” about access to the storage facility, because it could end up the subject of a contempt hearing if Giuliani doesn’t turn over the property he owes.

A jury in December 2023 awarded the pair $148 million in damages for lies Giuliani spread about them after the 2020 presidential election. The massive award sent Giuliani into bankruptcy, and entitled the defamed women to much of what he owns.

Asked by a reporter after Thursday’s hearing if he regretted defaming Freeman and Moss, Giuliani exclaimed, “No!” He then denied defaming them.

Liman had given Giuliani until Oct. 29 to surrender a long list of possessions, including the Mercedes, two dozen high-end watches, a jersey signed by New York Yankees Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio — long featured prominently above the fireplace in Giuliani’s $5 million apartment — as well as other furniture and sports memorabilia. The women are also entitled to some $2 million that Giuliani has said President-elect Trump’s 2020 campaign owes him. 

In another tense moment, Caruso called it “vindictive” that Giuliani must turn over a watch that’s an heirloom previously owned by his grandfather. Liman raised his voice, saying “Oh, come on,” before pointing to other cases he hears regularly, such as people “who run bodegas and short their employees’ wages.”

“If they have a debt, they have to pay the debt. It doesn’t matter if it’s an heirloom.” Liman said. He later said Moss and Freeman had been willing to let Giuliani keep the watch, but he never filed paperwork asking to do so.

Giuliani was in the passenger’s seat of a Mercedes convertible that appeared to be the 1980 classic once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall when he arrived to vote in Florida on Tuesday. 

Later that day, a spokesperson for the former New York City mayor and disbarred ex-attorney for Trump seemed to confirm it was the same vehicle, and said they’ve attempted to turn it over.

In court on Thursday, Kenneth Caruso, a lawyer for Giuliani, said he believed the half century old car could be appraised as being worth less than $4,000. He noted that a court order allows him to keep a vehicle to that value.

Caruso had asked Liman to allow Giuliani to attend the hearing remotely, as he had previously. Caruso said Giuliani is under contract to do evening radio appearances on Thursdays and Fridays. Caruso said Giuliani uses “broadcasting equipment” in his Florida home.

Liman rejected that request. On Thursday, he gave lawyers for the women until Nov. 11 to instruct Giuliani on how to turn over his property, and Giuliani four days after to comply.