Former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani leaves the federal courthouse in Washington on Monday, Dec. 11, 2023 (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana).
Rudy Giuliani is asking a federal judge in New York to stop defamed Georgia election workers from referencing any of the money he may or may not be owed by Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign — at least for another month or so.
In a late Tuesday filing, the former New York City mayor’s attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman to bar Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss from litigating issues related to “Defendant’s alleged claim against the Trump Campaign.”
Giuliani himself previously — during his since-shelved bankruptcy proceedings — raised the $2 million claim against the Trump campaign. Meanwhile, Freeman and Moss raised the claim in the present case — an effort to enforce their defamation case judgment — in late August.
Now, Giuliani wants a preemptive-but-temporary kibosh on any further legal maneuvers related to those alleged arrears.
“The Court, in its discretion, should postpone a turnover of this claim until November 6, 2024, the day after Election Day,” the filing reads.
In December 2023, Freeman and Moss won a $148 million default defamation verdict over a campaign against the women in which Giuliani falsely proclaimed the pair were engaged in fraud and had “cheated” voters during the 2020 presidential election.
The pair have since been engaged in various forms of litigation to avail their monetary interests against the onetime federal prosecutor — including legal filings in both bankruptcy courts and district courts. They also recently sued him, again, for defamation.
Tuesday’s filing by Giuliani is stylized as a memorandum of law in opposition to the August effort to enforce the judgment.
While requesting several forms of legal relief, the motivation behind the Trump campaign backpay issue is admittedly about the upcoming presidential election and how the media might make hay out of it.
“Plaintiffs will or may use this assignment for an improper, political (or, at least, collateral) purpose, creating the confusing, and inaccurate, appearance that Defendant is now somehow suing candidate Trump, thereby generating an accompanying, and unnecessary, media frenzy,” the Giuliani memo reads. “Plainly, the value of this claim will not depreciate between now and November 6, 2024.”
Election Day is Nov. 5.
The filing also addresses recent efforts by Freeman and Moss that forced Giuliani to “delist” his New York City apartment. This, all but a volte-face, came after the plaintiffs told the court the sale price of his “most valuable single asset” dropped by $525,000.
“For many months, stretching back to the bankruptcy case, Plaintiffs have known about — and supported — Defendant’s efforts to sell this apartment,” the filing explains. “Indeed, as Plaintiffs acknowledge on this motion, the Bankruptcy Court authorized Defendant to retain Sotheby’s as his real estate broker. Plaintiffs, however, now take the position that Defendant does not have the incentive to maximize the sale price. This contention is meritless.”
Rather, Giuliani says, he intends to seek full restitution — of anything paid to Freeman and Moss — by reversing the judgment on appeal. His attorneys argue this means he “has an incentive to maximize the sale price because he has a restitution interest in that price.”
In any event, Giuliani says, the issue should be considered moot. In the filing, he consents to a third-party receiver “to effect the sale of the New York apartment.”
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