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Attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, days after jurors ordered him to pay $148 million for spreading conspiracy theories about two former Georgia election workers after the 2020 presidential election.
Court records show Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York. He listed debts of up to $500 million and assets of up to $10 million.
Thursday’s filing pauses civil litigation and gives Giuliani some reprieve from creditors, Bloomberg News reported. It came after a federal jury on Friday ordered him to pay Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss $148 million for defamation.
Giuliani, who led the legal team for former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign in 2020, repeatedly claimed that the mother and daughter committed fraud while counting ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. In August, Giuliani admitted that the accusations were false, though he later told reporters that “everything I said about them was true,” The Washington Post reported.
In his bankruptcy filing, Giuliani listed “lawsuits” as a source of debt. He said he also owes the government nearly $1 million.
“The filing should be a surprise to no one,” Giuliani’s political adviser, Ted Goodman, said in a statement obtained by The New York Times.
“No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount. Chapter 11 will afford Mayor Giuliani the opportunity and time to pursue an appeal, while providing transparency for his finances under the supervision of the bankruptcy court, to ensure all creditors are treated equally and fairly throughout the process.”
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy one day after Judge Beryl Howell allowed for Freeman and Moss to immediately seek payment from Giuliani. The judge found that Giuliani never showed proof that he couldn’t pay the damages and never acknowledged an order she issued over the summer that requires him to pay Freeman and Moss’s attorney’s fees.
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