Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks during a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Washington, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. A jury awarded $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers who sued Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020 that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani appears to be on track for an April 15 “limited deposition,” perhaps the first of more question-and-answers sessions to come, judging by the latest entry on his bankruptcy docket.
Attorneys representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors on Tuesday updated an existing proposed discovery order that seeks documents on the “nature of any legal services” that Giuliani has “performed, or continue[s] to perform, for Donald J. Trump” as part of creditors’ efforts to probe Giuliani’s “assets, liabilities, relevant prepetition conduct and financial position.”
The latest additions to the proposed order, highlighted in blue, stated that Giuliani, on his own behalf and debtor-related entities (such as his companies), has “agreed to an initial limited deposition” for April 15 that will address “topics agreed upon” by both sides — and it may not be the last deposition.
“The Committee and the Debtor have a greed that this initial deposition is in no way intended to limit or preclude subsequent depositions of the Debtor or Debtor Related Entities following the production of documents,” the filing noted.
April 15 happens to be the day former President Trump’s hush-money trial is scheduled to begin in New York.
Last week, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane granted Giuliani a reprieve by declining to force him to sell his Florida condo, but even as the judge did so he issued a warning that attorneys’ for creditors may only be emboldened to pursue “far more draconian requests for relief in the future.”
Giuliani had urged the judge not to force the sale as he appeals the $148 million Georgia election workers defamation judgment that sent him into bankruptcy, arguing the judgment may be significantly reduced down the line. Giuliani has maintained that the judgment was “unreasonable on its face” — and his lawyer has expressed doubts that Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss suffered “any” damages.
Though the reprieve was a victory for Giuliani in the short term, Lane said, the debtor’s creditors have already fired a “warning shot across the bow.”
“The debtor may succeed in fending off this motion, only to be faced with far more draconian requests for relief in the future,” the judge said, warning that Giuliani’s assets may be pursued through other means, such as the appointment of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee who would “manage the affairs of the debtor and make all decisions” about Giuliani’s property and has the power to “propose a plan of reorganization.”
Attorneys for the creditors have complained that Giuliani’s “historical pattern of financial obfuscation and discovery misconduct” and embrace of delay tactics threatens to mar their inquiry into true nature of his “assets and financial condition.” A deposition appears to be the first step in getting some answers.
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