Rudy Giuliani is set to be back in court Thursday for a trial to determine ownership of some of his most valuable assets: a Florida condo and New York Yankees World Series rings.
The former Trump lawyer will be the first witness called in federal court in New York, marking the third time he will have testified under oath in the past two weeks.
Attorneys for Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss — the former Georgia election workers Giuliani defamed — want the condo and the rings turned over to help satisfy the $146 million judgment against him.
Giuliani’s attorney Joseph Cammarata said in court filings that the Florida home can’t be taken because it has protected status under a state law and that the rings no longer belong to Giuliani because he gifted them to his son, Andrew Giuliani, years ago.
Andrew Giuliani has argued in a court filing that the rings are his property.
“[O]n or before May 26, 2018, Mayor Giuliani gifted to his son, Andrew Giuliani, four New York Yankees World Series rings — one for each of the Yankees’ titles in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000, and each engraved with the name ‘Giuliani’ — which had been purchased by Mayor Giuliani after he had finished his second term as New York City Mayor in or around 2002,” his filing said.
Lawyers for Freeman and Moss are skeptical of Andrew Giuliani’s account; they’re seeking three of the four rings.
Rudy Giuliani, a Yankees superfan, listed the rings as his property in his bankruptcy case last year, and they were in his possession until at least 2023, the lawyers for Freeman and Moss noted.
While Giuliani was “a meticulous reporter of gifts to the IRS,” he never noted the gift on his tax returns, they added.
At his deposition last month, Giuliani testified that he had given the rings to his son but forgot that he had done so. “I remember talking about the rings and him telling me—and reminding me that I gave them to him,” Giuliani said, according to the filing.
Andrew Giuliani said he reminded his father and his father’s bankruptcy attorney that the rings belonged to him last January. But his father was still claiming them as his assets a month later, according to the filing by Freeman and Moss.
The attorneys also noted that Andrew Giuliani acknowledged that his father didn’t physically give him the rings until sometime in 2023 — about five years after they were allegedly gifted, while Giuliani was facing numerous lawsuits, including Freeman and Moss’.
“Even if it were disputed, Defendant’s possession is well-documented. Defendant has been photographed throughout this time period wearing the World Series Rings,” their filing said.
Giuliani was found liable for defaming Freeman and Moss by repeatedly accusing them — falsely — of committing election fraud in 2020. A jury awarded them $148 million in damages in December 2023. A judge later reduced the award to $146 million.
Giuliani is appealing that verdict, but Freeman and Moss have moved to seize his assets while the case is litigated. He has already been ordered to turn over cash, his car, his multimillion-dollar New York apartment and other sports memorabilia.
Giuliani contends that Freeman and Moss aren’t entitled to his Florida home, which he said he made his permanent residence last January.
Freeman and Moss’ lawyers are skeptical of that, as well. They noted that Giuliani listed his New York apartment as his primary residence in a bankruptcy filing in March and that in August he applied for a bank account at a New Hampshire credit union, checking a box that said: “live or work in NH.”
They contend Giuliani was using the Florida condo the way he had for years — as a winter home — until Freeman and Moss slapped a lien on the property on Aug. 8.
“Mr. Giuliani’s own evidence in this case shows that he spent approximately the same amount of time at the Palm Beach Condo in the first half of 2024 as in prior years: approximately four months,” their filing said.
Cammarata has countered that Giuliani obtained “a homestead tax exemption from the Palm Beach County Tax Assessor” last year and also registered to vote and got a driver’s license in Florida.
“Under Florida law and the Florida Constitution, there is no mandatory number of days that Defendant had to actually sleep in his Florida Condominium Unit,” he wrote.
The non-jury trial before U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman is expected to take one or two days, with closing arguments scheduled for Tuesday.
