A federal judge has dismissed Rudy
Giuliani's bankruptcy case, meaning those creditors who have not been
getting collected on their debts,
you know, for six months at this point may now
be able to start the process of going after his
assets.
And he owes a lot in order to avoid that.
Giuliani requested his case being dismissed earlier this week.
He owes more than
$153,000,000 to several people and businesses.
What does this all mean?
Legal affairs correspondent Avajoy Burnett knows,
thankfully, and is with us to break it down.
You're actually in touch with some of the Giuliani lawyers,
which we'll talk about. But,
you know, a lot of experts say
unwinding something like a bankruptcy case,
it's like unwinding a marriage.
It is not easy to do so.
Explain. And that's because the judge had several factors that
he had to weigh here.
There are several people who were involved,
even entities that were involved,
including those two women, the former Georgia election workers who
won that massive defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani.
And what the judge said in his order today was
for the six months of these proceedings,
Julian Gianni did not provide his information in a timely
manner.
And I want to show you a portion of what
Judge Lane wrote in this 22 page document today.
He said, in fact, Mr.
Giuliani would often promise to file monthly operating reports by
a certain date only to miss those deadlines.
Perhaps even more troubling, the information in the monthly operating
reports has been incomplete or inaccurate.
So the judge said it would have been really unfair
to to have many of these creditors wait for years
to possibly have a judgment here.
I was able to speak with a bankruptcy attorney who
has been following this case and take a listen to
what she had to say.
For this case in particular,
you have a very high profile
debtor with a very significant judgment against him and,
you know, a line of creditors down the street essentially.
So it's a hard case to kind of dismiss just
outright.
That being said, I, I think,
you know, part of what maybe helped convince the judge
is just how difficult it was going to be to
manage this case going forward.
And what this means for Giuliani is he is prohibited
from filing any other form of bankruptcy for the next
12 months.
Really. OK. So whether the judge was just like,
get your act together or they think this is a
ploy,
I, I don't know. But you actually talked to two
Giuliani's lawyers. But they say,
yes. I spoke with his attorneys earlier today.
And there was a twist earlier this week because they,
too, joined in this effort to dismiss this bankruptcy proceeding,
even after bringing this case just days after that massive
judgement against him late last year.
But what it appears as if it's going on here
is they believe today was a win for them,
but it really appears as if they're getting ready for
a possible fight Coming up.
Take a listen to what one of his attorneys told
me earlier today.
Give him the ability to,
you know, set forth his case in regard to,
you know, trying to overturn that
what I believe to be insane amount that that judgment
was awarded.
Spoke to him earlier today and he's happy and he's
excited to proceed forward in regard to the appeal.
So the focus now shifts to appealing that
$148 million judgment that came late last year.
That's what the fight will be now shifting to.
They will not be able to appeal what happened today.
But I've been told that they will be promptly filing
some sort of appeal in the federal District Court here
in Washington,
DC to try to get rid of that judgment,
that massive judgment. I'm glad you understand this because honestly,
as a legal outsider, that's this is kind of clear
as mud.
But what is clear is these people know this system
and how to work it,
you know, how to kind of work it to their
benefit.
But in the end, what does it mean for Giuliani?
Because, you know, I'm assuming he has bank accounts.
I don't know if he has trust in his family,
jewelry property. What happens, all of these things are being
eyed by the creditors.
He may not have enough money to fulfill that
$150 million judgement, but anything could be something good for
the creditors.
And I was able to reach out to the attorney
for Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss.
They have the biggest debt,
the biggest ask from him,
and their attorney told me we will begin enforcing our
judgement against him ASAP.
Really. And start seizing, give us the condo,
give us the fur coat,
whatever. And you know, that could be challenging.
We're dealing with the courts here.
So we know the courts are notoriously slow,
but they use the word ASAP in their statement today,
OK? They want this moving along.
Avidor Burnett, thank you.