Rudy Giuliani Leaks Into Bankruptcy

Rudy planned to hide from lawsuits in bankruptcy. His plan sucked.

Rudy Giuliani may become the first person to get the death penalty in a bankruptcy case.

Okay, not really. But if Ol’ Roodles thought that he was going to find refuge from his creditors in the warm embrace of a federal bankruptcy judge, he was sadly mistaken. In fact, he’s finding the experience even less salubrious than Alex Jones did.

Gimme Shelter

On December 21, 2023, just a week after a jury told him to cough up $148 million for defaming Atlanta poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, America’s erstwhile Mayor marched into the New York courtroom of US Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane and demanded shelter from the storm. Giuliani, who has been a member of the bar since 1968, expected the court to help him stay collections pending appeal, without the necessity of posting a supersedeas bond.

“To be clear, the stay modification would be for the post verdict motions and appeals,” he wrote in his motion, lest there be any confusion. “It would not be to authorize the Plaintiffs to take any steps to perfect any additional liens or otherwise proceed with further collection of the judgment except to participate in the post-judgment litigation.”

The creditors committee, consisting of Moss, Dominion Voting Systems, which has a pending suit against Rudy, and Noelle Dunphy, a former employee who sued Giuliani for ​​battery, assault, gender discrimination and sexual harassment, objected to him wasting cash on a useless appeal.

"Chapter 11 isn't just a place to hide out, spend all your money, and wait," the poll workers’ lawyer Rachel Strickland said at a hearing last month.

"I see it as an impediment to progress in the bankruptcy," Judge Lane agreed.

On February 20, the court authorized Giuliani to file post-trial motions in the Freeman/Moss case and notice an appeal, but not to actually prosecute it — meaning that Rudy is functionally SOL. And on May 23, the court affirmed the decision, ordering that “the automatic stay shall remain in place with respect to the Freeman Litigation and any appeal thereof, and no further action may be taken in the Freeman Litigation without further order of this Court.”

But Rudy did not get where he is in this life by taking no for an answer, and so he continued to devote all his efforts to convincing Judge Lane that actually he should be permitted to litigate a case he defaulted on at trial.