New York, Dec 21 (EFE) – Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in a New York court on Thursday, a day after a judge ordered him to immediately pay the $148 million he owes for defaming two Georgia poll workers.
Last Friday, a jury found Giuliani, who was the personal lawyer of former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021), liable for defamation, civil conspiracy and intentional infliction of emotional distress when he released a video accusing Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two poll workers in Georgia, of trying to steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump. This caused millions of his followers to harass and threaten the women and the jury ordered him to pay $148 million in damages to the mother-daughter pair.
And on Wednesday, the judge in the case, Beryl Howell, ordered Giuliani to begin paying immediately, citing the “ample record in this case of Giuliani’s efforts to conceal or hide his assets.”
In filing for bankruptcy, Giuliani declared assets estimated between one and ten million dollars and debts estimated between 100 and 500 million dollars.
Giuliani has been facing financial problems for some time and has not yet deposited the $200,000 fine that authorities imposed on him in August regarding the same defamation case.
Giuliani’s political advisor, Ted Goodman, said in a statement hat the bankruptcy “should be a surprise to no one” as “no person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount.”
Judge Howell, on the other hand, had called the amount “conservative.”
The bankruptcy filing will likely halt any pending lawsuits against Giuliani and give him time to appeal the sentence, the former mayor has defended his conduct as protected by free speech.
Trump is charged in two lawsuits, one in federal court in Washington and another in state court in Georgia, for his attempts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election.
Giuliani is accused in the Georgia case as an accomplice in the criminal scheme. According to the local press, the former mayor unsuccessfully asked Trump for money to cover the costs of his legal cases. EFE
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