Rudy Giuliani's apartment was vacated weeks ago, victims of a defamation case say

CNN
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Rudy Giuliani must appear in person in federal court on Thursday after two campaign aides set to receive nearly all of his most prized assets told a judge they believe Donald Trump's former lawyer is hiding items from them.

The complaint from poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss — to whom Giuliani owes nearly $150 million for defaming them after the 2020 election — comes after lawyers for the mother and daughter visited Giuliani's $6 million Manhattan apartment and have discovered much of the furniture and valuable sports memorabilia has recently been removed.

“The apartment was emptied of all contents except for a few rugs, a dining table, a few scattered small pieces of furniture and cheap wall art, and a handful of smaller items like dishes and stereos,” say Freeman and Moss. wrote attorney Aaron Nathan in a letter to the judge in the case.

At the court's direction, they are also trying to take possession of Giuliani's 26 luxury watches and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz that he kept in Florida. But these were not turned over either, according to court documents this week.

Nathan said Giuliani and his lawyers' approach to the bankruptcy case was one of “evasion and silence.”

Lawyers for Freeman and Moss went to the apartment last week to determine how best to store the luxury items inside that the judge ordered would now be theirs.

But the apartment was “essentially empty,” Nathan wrote. The expensive furniture that Giuliani used in real estate photos of the property earlier this year was moved out four weeks ago, he said.

Judge Lewis Liman ordered Giuliani to appear in court later this week.

Giuliani's lawyer told the court on Tuesday that the former New York mayor could not come to the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday because Giuliani had to do a live radio broadcast from his Palm Beach apartment that evening.

“We note that programs such as those described above currently represent Mr. Giuliani's sole source of income,” Giuliani's attorney Kenneth Caruso said in court. “We respectfully recommend that loss of income and travel expenses to New York should be avoided if possible.”

The judge rejected the request.

Giuliani's radio show is for a media platform created by right-wing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. The show took him to the Republican National Convention this summer, and since then Giuliani has been advocating for Trump in the election at appearances, including at the former president's recent rally at Madison Square Garden.

Giuliani was still being driven around in a Mercedes on Tuesday even as he went to vote in Florida, according to several photos from news outlets that found the former mayor at his polling station in Palm Beach. The classic car, a blue-gray convertible, once belonged to Hollywood star Lauren Bacall, and Giuliani in the photos is seen leaning back in the passenger seat, wearing an American flag T-shirt and a New York Fire Department baseball cap.

When asked if he had used the car a week after he was supposed to hand it over to Moss and Freeman under a court order, Giuliani's spokesman Ted Goodman told CNN that Giuliani's lawyers had requested documents to transfer the vehicle's title .

Moss and Freeman's team already complained to the judge on Tuesday about Giuliani's use of the car and submitted the photos to the court.

Separately, Giuliani's lawyers say the property that was in the Manhattan apartment is now in a warehouse on Long Island, but Freeman and Moss' team say they are having difficulty accessing the items there, too receive.

The women are also still in court, trying to convince the judge that they can take control of a $3.5 million Palm Beach condo where Giuliani says he now lives, and over four Yankees World Series rings from the 1990s and 2000 championships that Giuliani's son says were received as gifts from his father.

This story has been updated with additional details.