Rudy Giuliani declared bankruptcy on Thursday, six days after a $148 million defamation judgment was awarded against him.
Giuliani disclosed in the chapter 11 filing between $1 and $10 million in assets, compared to a whopping range of $100 million to $500 million in liabilities. The biggest single liability he listed is the $148 million he was ordered to pay for defaming Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman.
The former New York City mayor and current Trump attorney said in the filing that he owes the government just beneath $1 million in state and federal taxes.
He owes more than $1.6 million in legal fees to various attorneys who have represented him, including via a $1.3 million lawsuit filed by his longtime attorney Robert Costello.
But it’s the legal judgments against Rudy which appear to present the biggest burden. On top of the $148 million owed to Freeman and Moss, Giuliani faces several ongoing claims from entities and people he allegedly defamed while seeking to pin Trump’s 2020 loss on voter fraud. That includes Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic.
Other liabilities that appear in the filing: Daniel Gill, a former Staten Island retail employee who Giuliani alleged tried to kidnap him after he patted the former mayor on the back and asked, “what’s up, scumbag,” is listed as demanding $2 million via a lawsuit; a telecom company is asking for $30,000; and a CPA $10,000.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell for the District of Columbia ordered Giuliani to begin paying the full $148 million on Wednesday, saying that she believed he would attempt to “conceal” his assets otherwise. Unlike other forms of debt, Giuliani will not be able to discharge the defamation judgment during the bankruptcy process.
Giuliani has said that he will appeal the $148 million judgment, but for now it remains the largest single line item of the enormous debt he faces.
Lawsuits from the two 2020 voting machine firms remain outstanding, as does a case brought by Hunter Biden. Noelle Dunphy, a former associate of Giuliani’s, is also seeking sexual harassment damages.
