Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Rudy Giuliani was already pretty broke when a jury order him to pay $148 million in damages for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. So it wasn’t much a surprise when the former New York City mayor-turned–Donald Trump lackey filed for bankruptcy days after the December 15 verdict.
Giuliani listed nearly $153 million in existing or potential debts and assets worth $1 million to $10 million. But Giuliani’s actual net worth is an open question. In recent weeks he’s provided more details to U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming he has a “net income” of $2,308 per month and monthly expenses of $43,797. However, as Law & Crime notes, Giuliani’s creditors don’t trust those figures — which makes sense, as he’s trying to get out of paying what he owes and he led Trump’s audaciously mendacious campaign to steal the 2020 election. So attorneys for Giuliani’s creditors want a forensic-accounting firm to look into his claims.
In the meantime, Giuliani appeared at a three-hour bankruptcy-court hearing in Manhattan on Wednesday to answer questions on his finances. As he was leaving court he said, for what it’s worth, that he’d provided “all the information” he could and has “nothing to hide.” Here are Giuliani’s most eye-popping claims.
Giuliani seemed to confirm reports that Trump owes him a hefty sum for his time serving as the president’s personal lawyer. Trump reportedly refused to pay his legal bills, even though he has money sitting in a “Patriot Legal Defense Fund” for just this kind of expense and Giuliani begged.
At the hearing, Giuliani estimated that he’s owed about $2 million for running Trump’s legal team as they tried to have the 2020 election overturned, but he “never got a salary.”
“Once I took over, it was my understanding that I would be paid by the campaign for my legal work and my expenses to be paid,” he said, per The Independent. “When we submitted the invoice for payment, they just paid the expenses. Not all but most. They never paid the legal fees.”
Giuliani was careful to say that his gripe isn’t with Trump himself (who recently hosted a fundraiser that brought in $700,000 for Rudy’s legal defense). “It is my understanding that I would have a complaint, certainly against the campaign and RNC, not against Trump,” he said.
Court documents show Giuliani owes $38,520 in membership fees to Florida’s Emerald Dunes Country Club — though this claim is listed as “disputed.” He also owes the Trump International Golf Club $647. That seems like the kind of thing Trump could easily forgive, considering the circumstances, but apparently not.
Giuliani revealed he owes $9,530 for an overdraft on a Citigold checking account, per the Wall Street Journal. He attributed this to a bounced check.
Filings also show that Giuliani owes $720,000 to the IRS Centralized Insolvency Operation and more than $280,000 in unpaid New York State and city taxes.
At the hearing Giuliani said he fell behind on his taxes in 2021 because he “didn’t have enough cash” so he made an agreement with the IRS to sell his Manhattan co-op (he listed the property for $6.5 million last summer but has been struggling to sell it).
Giuliani said he has one year left of alimony payments to his third wife, Judith Nathan, who divorced him in 2019. But under the terms of his divorce, he’ll continue paying for her mother’s nursing-home fees.
The hearing revealed some other minor, kind of sad details about how Giuliani is living these days. The Independent reported:
He claimed that he did not pay any home insurance on either of his properties in New York and Florida, did not know that he had any trademarks (he does), spends $726 a month on dry cleaning, pays $800 a month for a storage unit in The Bronx full of nothing of any great value, and does not have a driver’s licence. His drivers are his spokesperson or other livestream co-hosts (who also work for him), or he pays thousands of dollars a year on Uber to get around.
Giuliani said he now has limited earning potential since his law licenses were suspended “for no reason.” Disciplinary boards in New York City and Washington, D.C., actually revoked his ability to practice law for lying about the 2020 election. As a New York appellate court put it, he “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers, and the public at large.”
Don’t cry for Giuliani. Aside from the fact that he (arguably) brought this on himself, he seems to be maintaining a surprisingly positive attitude, as the Daily News reported:
Despite the depressing subject matter, Giuliani cracked jokes during the hours-long meeting, at times holding his face in his hands as he struggled to recall the minutiae of his finances. He said he makes money as a radio and telecast host, and sometimes gets paid for speeches and consulting through his company, Giuliani Communications.
We don’t know for sure that this “consulting” work is what led to Giuliani doing a promotional video for a random deli on Long Island last week. But even if he didn’t get paid, at least he’s eating well.
