Rudy Giuliani to be first witness at trial over whether he keeps Florida home and World Series rings

[January 16, 2025]  By LARRY NEUMEISTER and MICHAEL R. SISAK

NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is set to be the first witness at a trial over whether he can keep his Florida condominium and three World Series rings or must turn them over to satisfy a $148 million defamation judgment awarded to two Georgia election workers.

The trial, heard without a jury, begins Thursday morning at a federal court in Manhattan.

Giuliani, 80, will testify before the same judge who last week found him in contempt for failing to turn over information on some of his assets to lawyers for the women. As punishment, Judge Lewis J. Liman banned Giuliani from introducing some evidence.

Giuliani, who served for a time as personal attorney to President-elect Donald Trump during his first term, also was found in contempt last week in Washington, D.C. The judge there found that Giuliani continued to slander the election workers by repeating false claims that they counted votes corruptly in the 2020 presidential contest.

The latest proceeding will not be to relitigate whether Giuliani defamed the women or the amount of the judgment against him, both of which are issues that have been decided, but rather to determine whether he will get to keep certain valuable assets instead of turning them over.

Among them is his condominium in Palm Beach, Florida, which he can hang onto if he can prove it is his homestead. The former mayor says he established residence there in January 2024, but lawyers for the election workers say he continued to operate as if his New York apartment was his residence until it was surrendered in the fall as part of the judgement.

Also at stake are three World Series rings that Giuliani says he gave to his son, Andrew, in 2018.

At a recent hearing, Giuliani said he is “not impoverished” but does not have access to most of his remaining assets.

Rudy Giuliani, center, speaks to reporters after leaving federal court in Washington, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

"Everything I have is tied up. I don’t have a car. I don’t have a credit card. I don’t have cash. I can’t get to bank accounts that truly would be mine because they have put ... stop orders on, for example, my Social Security account, which they have no right to do,” he said.

Lawyers for the election workers say Giuliani listed the Manhattan apartment as his residence and the rings as his property when he filed for bankruptcy in December 2023, an application that was dismissed six months later by a judge who accused him of “uncooperative conduct,” self-dealing and a lack of transparency.

Giuliani said during a deposition last month that George Steinbrenner, the late New York Yankees owner, gave him the rings in 2002, although he insisted on paying for them and told Steinbrenner: “These are for Andrew.” He testified that he gave one to Andrew immediately and kept three others for safekeeping. He estimated their total worth at $27,000.

Lawyers for the election workers say Giuliani, a lifelong Yankees fan who wore the rings sometimes, never listed them as a gift to his son in tax records even though he was meticulous about listing gifts when he reported taxes. And they say the son never obtained insurance for the rings or reported them in his own tax records.

Giuliani's total assets are not expected to amount to much more than $10 million. The Palm Beach condominium is believed to be worth more than $3 million.

He has already surrendered a New York apartment worth about $5 million, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, numerous luxury watches and other assets.

The election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, won the defamation judgment after saying Giiuliani's lies about the 2020 presidential election being stolen led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.

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