Rudy Giuliani made a bold choice Tuesday afternoon, showing up to vote in the presidential election in a Mercedes-Benz convertible he was ordered to surrender last week.
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, was spotted Tuesday arriving at Donald Trump’s polling place in Florida in a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL500, flouting last week’s deadline to hand over most of his assets to two Georgia election workers who won a US$148 million defamation judgment against him.
Lawyers for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss — the two former Georgia election workers who were awarded the massive judgment — claim that in addition to the car, he also cleared out valuables from his Manhattan apartment and is refusing to answer questions about the location of most of the items subject to the court order.
“That silence is especially outrageous given the revelation that Defendant apparently took affirmative steps to move his property out of the New York Apartment in recent weeks, while a restraining notice was in effect and while a turnover motion was pending with respect to that property,” wrote Aaron Nathan, a lawyer for the election workers, in a letter filed in federal court Monday.
According to the Associated Press, the two women visited Giuliani’s apartment late last week to assess the contents and coordinate moving the items, but when they arrived the residence was “substantially empty.”
“Save for some rugs, a dining room table, some stray pieces of small furniture and inexpensive wall art, and a handful of smaller items like dishes and stereo equipment, the Apartment has been emptied of all of its contents,” Nathan wrote, noting that expensive art, furniture and sports memorabilia was gone.
Nathan explained that Giuliani’s team told them the Mercedes was in Florida, as well as a collection of luxury watches.
The Oct. 22 ruling by U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman gave Giuliani one week to transfer personal property “including cash accounts, jewelry and valuables, a legal claim for unpaid attorneys’ fees, and his interest in his Madison Avenue co-op apartment to a receivership.”
Liman ordered Giuliani to hand over, among other things, his US$5 million apartment, the Mercedes which was once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, and a variety of other belongings, from his television to a shirt signed by New York Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio to 26 luxury watches.
A spokesperson for Giuliani, Ted Goodman, told NBC News, “Our lawyers have requested documentation to transfer over the title of the vehicle, and haven’t heard back from opposing counsel.”
He also said the election workers were trying to leave Giuliani “penniless and homeless,” and that Giuliani is not being evasive.
“Mayor Giuliani has made available his property and possessions as ordered. A few items were put into storage over the course of the past year, and anything else removed was related to his two livestream programs,” Goodman said.
Michael Ragusa, Giuliani’s head of security, appeared to defend his client in a separate statement, saying he’s retained the Mercedes out of necessity.
“Mayor Giuliani is an 80-year-old man with a bad knee and 9/11-related lung disease, relies on this vehicle as his primary means of transportation in Florida, where there is no mass transit system like New York City’s,” he said, according to The Guardian.
“He currently holds an active Florida driver’s license. The way he is being pushed toward poverty by those targeting him, after all he has done for this country, is appalling and it is clearly politically motivated.”
The $148-million judgment stems from Giuliani’s role in pushing Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Giuliani, who has since been disbarred in New York and Washington, falsely accused Freeman and Moss of ballot fraud, saying they snuck in ballots in suitcases, counted ballots multiple times and tampered with voting machines.
Freeman and Moss sued for defamation and said the false allegations led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.
— With files from The Associated Press