The former Fulton County election workers who won a $148 million defamation verdict against former New York Mayor and attorney Rudy Giuliani have filed a new lawsuit against him in their ongoing attempt to collect the award.
Ruby Freeman and Wandrea’ ArShaye “Shaye” Moss sued Giuliani in a New York federal court Friday, claiming he’s trying to shield his luxury Florida condo from their grasp. The complaint says Giuliani is a New York resident pretending to live in Florida in an effort to qualify his Palm Beach condo for homestead protection under Florida law.
“Unfortunately, this is only the latest of Mr. Giuliani’s attempts to evade and obstruct accountability for his actions,” Freeman and Moss said in their complaint. “But that evasive maneuver is no more valid than the last few: Mr. Giuliani’s own public internet broadcasts show that he has not actually resided in the Palm Beach condo since purporting to establish permanent, actual residency there — and he certainly has not maintained it as a ‘homestead.’”
Giuliani, one of the defendants indicted alongside former President Donald Trump in Fulton County, is appealing the $148 million verdict, which he called an “absurdity.” His spokesman, Ted Goodman, slammed the new complaint as a step “designed to harass and intimidate” Giuliani.
“This lawsuit has always been designed to censor and bully the mayor, and to deter others from exercising their right to speak up and to speak out,” Goodman said Friday. “America is facing an existential crisis. We were once a country that put a premium on free speech and the integrity of our justice system, yet we now live in a time where the justice system has been weaponized against Mayor Giuliani and so many others for strictly partisan political purposes.”
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Giuliani publicly accused Freeman and Moss of ballot stuffing and other illegal acts, though that had been debunked by state and federal investigators. Freeman and Moss said the allegations upended their lives and spurred death threats and racial harassment.
In December, a federal jury in Washington, D.C., awarded Freeman and Moss the money, finding that Giuliani had falsely accused them of election fraud.
Freeman and Moss said Giuliani tried to avoid the judgment through bankruptcy, but that the bankruptcy court “saw through that scheme” and dismissed the bankruptcy case. They said he’s now switched tactics and hopes to find a safe haven in Florida law.
The Sunshine State protects a person’s homestead from execution to satisfy a judgment.
Freeman and Moss said Giuliani would have to prove that he lives in the Palm Beach condo and intends to stay there in order to get the homestead exemption.
“As late as July 9, 2024, it was Mr. Giuliani’s position that the Palm Beach condo should be sold in chapter 7 liquidation,” their lawsuit states.
Giuliani declared that the condo was his primary residence on July 13, but since then has spent his time elsewhere, Freeman and Moss claim. They said he’s “trying to ‘toy with’ Florida’s homestead exemption to shield a multi-million dollar asset from his creditors.”
Freeman and Moss said they established a lien on the condo on Aug. 8. They want the court to appoint them as receivers with authority to take possession of and sell the residence.
Giuliani owns a Manhattan apartment near Central Park in addition to the Palm Beach condo, per the lawsuit. It states that he claimed the New York property as his primary residence during his bankruptcy case.
Freeman and Moss allege that Giuliani publicly broadcasts his location on his “daily livestreams shows on the internet.” They said it appears he was last at the Florida condo on May 26, and since then has been broadcasting from New York, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Texas and Illinois as well as Paris and London.
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