(RepublicanJournal.org) – Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who went on to serve as Donald Trump’s personal attorney, has filed for bankruptcy. He’s been left broke after a jury handed him a massive fine in a Georgia defamation case. Chapter 11 is his only chance of avoiding the fine — but many experts say it isn’t going to work.
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election Giuliani, who at the time was the former president’s personal lawyer, accused Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss of manipulating the results of the vote. He based those claims on video taken from the election count, which he said showed the women passing a USB stick of data around. The women, who say the object they were passing was a piece of candy, sued him for defamation, saying their reputations had been destroyed and they’d suffered harassment and death threats. Giuliani didn’t defend the case, and on December 15 a federal jury ordered him to pay the two women, who are mother and daughter, $148 million,
On December 21, Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, claiming he has assets of $1 million to $10 million and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million. His exact net worth is hard to tell because he didn’t comply with court requests for financial details, but it’s unlikely he has anywhere near enough money to pay the fine.
Bankruptcy can shield people from many debts, but legal experts aren’t sure that extends to a court-ordered fine. Former US attorney Barb McQuade said on X (formerly Twitter) that “Judgments for intentional torts are not dischargeable in bankruptcy.” Freeman and Moss’s attorney, Michael Gottlieb, agrees; in a statement to reporters he said Giuliani’s bankruptcy filing was “unsurprising” and “will not succeed in discharging [his] debt.” However, at this point, it’s about the only move Giuliani has left.
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