AP File Photo by: zz/John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx 2022 9/9/22 Rudy Giuliani is interviewed on September 9, 2022 about the September 11th 2001 (9/11/01) terror attacks in New York City. (NYC)
At a bankruptcy court hearing in New York this week, Rudy Giuliani said the Republican National Committee and Donald Trump‘s 2020 presidential campaign owe him roughly $2 million in legal fees.
Trump is now Giuliani’s s co-defendant in a sweeping criminal indictment in Georgia alleging that they and more than a dozen co-defendants attempted to overturn election results in that state in 2020. Nevertheless, the onetime New York mayor told his creditors in a New York City federal bankruptcy court Wednesday that when Trump’s campaign asked him to look into claims of election fraud — none of which turned out to be true — he took up the offer.
Expenses were paid for, according to reporting Wednesday from The Independent, but Giuliani said in the courtroom an important element was missing.
Once he “took over” the search for fraudulent votes, Giuliani told U.S. Trustee attorney Andrea Schwartz, “[i]t was my understanding that I would be paid by the campaign for my legal work and my expenses to be paid.”
But, he said: “When we submitted the invoice for payment, they just paid the expenses. Not all but most. They never paid the legal fees.”
He “never got a salary,” however, he said.
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy after a jury found that he defamed two election workers in Georgia, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, and was ordered to pay them $148 million in damages.
Giuliani, once a former federal prosecutor himself, disseminated claims that the women had stuffed ballots into suitcases in an attempt to cheat Trump out of a victory in the state. That and other baseless allegations were found untrue after extensive investigations. The women’s lives were turned upside down as they were inundated with death threats and other abuses as a result of the defamation, forcing both of them to quit their jobs. Freeman, Moss’s elderly mother, was pushed out of her home for fear of her life.
Today, Giuliani says he has roughly $10 million in assets, Bloomberg Law reported, and that’s up against his more than $150 million in liabilities.
As Law&Crime reported this week, Giuliani is fighting debts on all fronts in at least 10 lawsuits, including almost $400,000 in outstanding legal fees to the law firm of Aidala, Bertuna, and Kamins, which represented him in misconduct proceedings before the Washington, D.C., Bar. Moss herself is a member of the unsecured creditors committee, Moss is a member of the unsecured creditors committee along with Noelle Dunphy, a former Giuliani associate who is suing him for sexual assault, which he denies. He is also facing a lawsuit from U.S. Dominion, Inc., the well-known voting hardware and software company that is suing Giuliani for defamation over false claims that they rigged the 2020 election in Joe Biden’s favor.
He also owes at least $40,000 in membership fees for golf clubs, court filings revealed. He owes back taxes to New York and the federal government totaling nearly $1 million. And he owes Citigold, his bank, roughly $10,000. That, he told the court this week, is something he is not disputing.
Yet when speaking to attorneys with the Office of the U.S. Trustee on Wednesday in New York, Giuliani emphasized that had it not been for the defamation verdict, he wouldn’t have needed to file for bankruptcy at all. Giuliani’s finances will continue to be scrutinized this week.
