(New York) Donald Trump’s former lawyer and ex-mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, declared personal bankruptcy before the American courts on Thursday, a week after being ordered to pay $148 million to two assessors elections in Georgia that he had defamed.
Mr. Giuliani, spearhead of the former Republican president’s campaign to invalidate the results of the 2020 election, filed a request in Manhattan federal court under the famous Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy law, by declaring up to $500 million in debts and one to ten million dollars in assets, according to court documents.
Last Friday, a jury in a federal court in the capital Washington ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay $148 million in compensation and damages for moral injury to Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Shaye Moss, two election agents from the state of Georgia (southeast) during the November 2020 presidential election.
The election was won by Democrat Joe Biden but former Republican President Donald Trump (2017-2021), who dreams of returning to the White House, has believed for more than three years that the victory was stolen from him.
Among the creditors listed by Mr. Giuliani in his personal bankruptcy filing are the IRS and NYS Department of Taxation & Finance for millions of dollars in cumulative debts. As well as law firms, an electronic voting machine company (Dominion) and… a company of President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“Giuliani’s lies”
Last Friday, the complainant Mme Moss had described the “devastating” years lived with his mother due to “the lies of Rudy Giuliani”, the former personal lawyer and very close to Donald Trump.
From a video showing the mother and her daughter passing an object – which turned out to be a mint tablet – during the counting of the ballots, the former mayor and ex-prosecutor of New York claimed that they exchanged a USB key “as if it were doses of heroin or cocaine” to fake the results.
The two black women had recounted how these accusations, taken up by Donald Trump on social networks, had earned them a flood of insults and threats, often of a racist nature.
After recognizing in July the falsity of his accusations, Mr. Giuliani affirmed last Friday “to have no doubt that his statements were tenable at the time and were still tenable today”, but said he had been prevented from provide proof.
Former “Mayor of America”
The former “Mayor of America”, recognized worldwide more than 20 years ago for his management of the September 11, 2001 attacks and his role as a former anti-mafia prosecutor in New York, has since fallen from grace.
He called the claimed amount of $148 million “absurdity.”
Rudy Giuliani is also being sued by the law firm that represented him for several years (Davidoff Hutcher & Citron) and which is claiming $1.36 million in unpaid debts. He is also being sued in civil court by the companies Dominion, Smartmatic and by Hunter Biden for “undetermined” amounts, according to court documents.
Rudy Giuliani was criminally indicted in August by the Georgia courts along with Donald Trump and 17 others for illicit manipulation to reverse the results of the 2020 election in this key state.
Four of the 19 defendants initially targeted by the indictment issued on August 14, notably under a law on organized crime, have already pleaded guilty. They were sentenced to reduced sentences, without prison time, in exchange for their testimony at the future trial of the other defendants.