By Dietrich Knauth
(Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Friday ended Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy, allowing lawsuits for defamation, sexual harassment and other claims to be filed against Donald Trump’s former lawyer.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane in White Plains, New York, also banned Giuliani from filing for bankruptcy for one year.
Giuliani, 80, filed for bankruptcy protection in December after a Washington DC court ordered the former New York mayor to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of manipulating votes in the 2020 presidential election, which were won by the Democrat. Joe Biden.
The bankruptcy prevented former Georgia election workers Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman from collecting that judgment, while other lawsuits stemming from Giuliani’s work for Trump, the former Republican president, were frozen as he tried to overturn his loss to make. the 2020 elections.
The dismissal allows Giuliani’s creditors to resume lawsuits against him, but it also frees Giuliani to appeal the $148 million defamation judgment that forced him to file for bankruptcy protection.
Now that he is no longer bankrupt, Giuliani plans to appeal the verdict, his lawyer Heath Berger said on Friday following the ruling.
As a Reuters investigation reveals, Moss and Freeman’s lives were turned upside down by a barrage of threats following a hearing of lawmakers in Georgia in December 2020, where the Trump campaign falsely claimed surveillance videos had been captured from a vote processing room at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. “Shocking” evidence of fraud.
Giuliani later showed clips of the video and repeatedly mentioned Moss and Freeman by name, calling them “thugs” who “obviously” stole votes.
Rachel Strickland, an attorney for Moss and Freeman, said her clients would take immediate action to enforce their verdict against Giuliani.
“We are pleased that the court saw through Mr. Giuliani’s gamesmanship and put an end to his abuse of the bankruptcy process,” Strickland said.
In dismissing the bankruptcy case, Lane cited Giuliani’s “continued failure to meet its reporting obligations and provide the financial transparency required of a debtor.”
Giuliani’s personal disclosures were late and incomplete, and Giuliani’s companies never made financial disclosures in bankruptcy court.
Giuliani’s own bankruptcy lawyers seemed unaware that Giuliani was promoting a coffee brand until his creditors raised concerns about media reports, Lane wrote.
After seven months in Chapter 11, Giuliani had made no progress on a potential bankruptcy settlement with the people who sued him, Lane wrote. Ending the bankruptcy made more sense than continuing to spend money on bankruptcy costs that would ultimately reduce his ability to pay creditors, Lane said in Friday’s ruling.
Giuliani’s creditors allege he ignored bankruptcy disclosure rules and continued to spend lavishly after filing for Chapter 11.
Giuliani paid salaries to his girlfriend Maria Ryan and her daughter, failed to report income from his companies and made defamatory statements that caused the cancellation of his WABC radio show, creditors said.
In addition to Moss and Freeman, Giuliani’s creditors include former employee Noelle Dunphy, who has accused Giuliani of sexual assault and wage theft, and voting machine companies Dominion and Smartmatic, which have also sued Giuliani for defamation. Giuliani has denied the allegations.
Giuliani is charged separately in Georgia and Arizona for allegedly contributing to Trump’s efforts to undermine the election. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty and called the charges politically motivated.
The former Manhattan U.S. attorney was stripped of his New York law license earlier this month when a court ruled that he had “baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process” by spreading false claims of election fraud.
