Rudy Giuliani.Photo: Rob Kim/Getty Images
Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and onetime attorney for former PresidentDonald Trump, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday, listing debts of nearly $500 million.
Outlets includingThe Washington Postreport that Giuliani, 79, lists losses stemming from tax liabilities, as well as money he owes his lawyers as he navigates a landmine of lawsuits as well as millions of dollars in legal judgments.
Giuliani’s bankruptcy filing came nearly one week after a Washington, D.C., juryordered him to pay more than $148 millionto two Georgia election workers for defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.
The women were awarded $20 million each for emotional distress and a total of $75 million in punitive damages. Freeman was awarded $16 million for claims of defamation, while Moss was awarded nearly $17 million.
In a statement to thePost, a spokesperson for Giuliani said of Thursday’s bankruptcy filing: “The filing should be a surprise to no one. No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount.”
Once known as “America’s Mayor” in the wake of theSept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Giuliani has in recent years faced a slew of controversies — many of them related to his relationship with Trump and his time spent hosting press conferences and appearing on television and in courtrooms to contest the results of the 2020 election.
Giuliani’s public appearances were not only striking for their substance, but for the lawyer’s combative tone (and, in one viral moment, for his appearance when what appeared to behair dye ran down his faceduring a live press conference).
Rudy Giuliani.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
After spending months arguing, without proof, that the election had been stolen from Trump, Giuliani and other allies of the former president failed to prove their case, with many of their lawsuits being tossed out of court altogether.
In August Giuliani wasindicted on 13 felony chargesalongside Trump and several other allies in Fulton County, Georgia, for an alleged conspiracy to meddle with the results of the state’s 2020 election. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and has not yet gone to trial.
In September, CNN data reporter Harry Enten cited polls showing thatGiuliani’s popularity had droppedsome 60 points over the last 21 years.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.” Entin said during the segment. “I remember when Rudy was a hero in the city in New York, and look at what he is now. He is, for most Americans, just a disgrace — at least, according to the polling data.”
source: people.com
