Rudy Giuliani is being forced to hand over his only vehicle, a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL500
According to his spokesperson, Rudy Giuliani is being forced to give up his sole car, a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL500 that belonged to actress Lauren Bacall.
Giuliani, a former attorney for former President Donald Trump, was given a week by New York Judge Lewis Liman on Tuesday to turn over the car, the lease for a $6 million apartment in New York City at 45 East 66th Street, and other assets to a receivership established for two election workers he defamed. His rights to the $2 million Trump owes him for legal services, money in his bank account, and an autographed Joe DiMaggio shirt must all be included in the transfer.
For making false allegations that Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss had added votes for Joe Biden as ballot counters while working in an election-count facility in Georgia, the former mayor of New York City was forced to pay more than $148 million in penalties.
An altered surveillance camera tape that Giuliani disseminated falsely purported to show them passing USB disks. A Washington, D.C., jury granted Moss and Freeman $148 million in December after they filed a slander lawsuit. On Thursday, Newsweek emailed the lawyer for Freeman and Moss for comment.
Ted Goodman, Giuliani’s spokesperson, 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.”
Giuliani’s political rivals “are trying to bully and intimidate him into silence through the weaponization of our justice system and through obvious lawfare,” according to Goodman, who described the situation as “painfully clear.”
Goodman went on: “The mayor is compelled by the court order to give up really personal items, such as presents from his kids and close relatives. “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, referring to the personal gift from his childhood hero Joe DiMaggio and the gift from the first soldiers who entered Afghanistan after September 11.
Goodman said that Giuliani “has improved the lives of more people through public service than almost any other living American” while “being unfairly punished by partisan, political activists who are trying to make an example out of him.”
“Despite the fact that the ruling is still being appealed, the court decision mandates that Mayor Giuliani surrender almost all of his personal belongings. They had the option to postpone this step until after the appeal, but they decided against it,” Goodman said.