Rudy Giuliani speaks to members of the media where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was scheduled to host a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Jan. 21, 2024.
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A New York federal bankruptcy judge on Friday in a scathing ruling dismissed the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection case of Rudy Giuliani, immediately exposing the newly disbarred former Trump lawyer to his creditors seeking repayments of his massive debts in other court venues.
Those creditors include two Georgia election workers, to whom Giuliani owes $148 million in civil damages for defamation from a federal district court jury award in December.
The damages stem from slanderous statements the former New York City mayor made about the workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, when he was trying to overturn the loss of then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Freeman and Moss, unlike many other Giuliani creditors, supported the idea of dismissing the bankruptcy case in the Southern District of New York, which he filed days after losing the defamation judgment.
Giuliani also agreed to the dismissal, as it would allow him to go forward with an appeal of his court loss to the women, and avoid having a bankruptcy trustee oversee the handling of his assets.
The bankruptcy case’s dismissal comes 10 days after the state of New York disbarred Giuliani for his widespread lies about voter fraud leading to Trump’s defeat in 2020 to President Joe Biden. Giuliani, a former top federal prosecutor in New York and senior Department of Justice official, is criminally charged in state courts in Georgia and Arizona with felonies related to his efforts to undo Trump’s defeat.
In his ruling on Friday, Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane wrote that he “finds that dismissal of this bankruptcy case with a one year bar to refiling is in the best interests of creditors.”
Lane blasted Giuliani’s conduct in the case, writing, “The record … reflects Mr. Giuliani’s continued failure to meet his reporting obligations and provide the financial transparency required of a debtor in possession.”
“Most significantly, none of Mr. Giuliani’s business entities have made any production [of required information] at all despite being required to do so,” the judge wrote.
“Nor has Mr. Giuliani or his entities identified any legitimate reason why the requested information should not or cannot be produced,” he added. “This failure to provide even basic disclosure about these assets is sufficient in and of itself for a finding of cause.”
A spokesman for Giuliani did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
