Rudy Giuliani is being forced to surrender his only vehicle, a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL500 that was once owned by actress Lauren Bacall, his spokesman has said.
On Tuesday, New York Judge Lewis Liman ordered that Giuliani, a former lawyer for former President Donald Trump, has one week to transfer the car, the lease to a New York City apartment at 45 East 66th Street, worth about $6 million, and other property to a receivership set up for two election workers he defamed. The transfer must include his rights to the $2 million Trump owes him for legal services; cash in his bank account; and a signed Joe DiMaggio shirt.
The former New York City mayor was ordered to pay Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, more than $148 million in damages for false claims that they had added votes for Joe Biden as ballot counters while working in an election-count center in Georgia.
Giuliani circulated an edited clip of security footage that he wrongly claimed showed them passing USB drives. Moss and Freeman sued for defamation, and in December, a Washington, D.C., jury awarded them $148 million. Newsweek sought email comment from Freeman and Moss’ attorney on Thursday.
Giuliani’s spokesman, Ted Goodman, told Newsweek that the court is “forcing the mayor to relinquish his only vehicle. They’ve restricted his access to his personal bank accounts and his credit cards, and they’ve blocked him from his business accounts.”
Goodman said it was “painfully clear” that Giuliani’s political enemies “are attempting to bully and intimidate him into silence through the weaponization of our justice system and through obvious lawfare.”
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Goodman added: “The court order forces the mayor to relinquish deeply personal belongings, including gifts from his children and close family friends. They are attempting to take everything from him, including a personal gift from his childhood hero Joe DiMaggio and a gift from the first soldiers who entered Afghanistan following September 11.
“Mayor Giuliani has faith that justice will ultimately prevail, and he will be fully vindicated, just as he had been in countless other situations,” Goodman said.
Goodman added that Giuliani “has improved the lives of more people through public service than almost any other living American” and is “being unfairly punished by partisan, political activists who are trying to make an example out of him.”
“The court order requires Mayor Giuliani to turn over nearly all his personal possessions, even though the judgment is currently on appeal. They could have held off on this step, pending the appeal, but chose not to do so,” Goodman said.
