Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case could be thrown out entirely, after a judge said Wednesday that he is inclined to dismiss it.
“I’m leaning toward dismissal, frankly, because I am concerned that the past is prologue,” said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane, who added that he will make a final ruling Friday.
The judge’s remarks came at the end of a turbulent hearing as he weighed several proposals to deal with the case. Just hours before the hearing began, Giuliani’s lawyers asked that the case be dismissed.
Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December after he was ordered to pay nearly $150 million to two former Georgia election workers for spreading lies about them in the 2020 election. His bankruptcy proceedings prevented the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, from immediately collecting the money.
For months, Giuliani has submitted confusing and conflicting reports to the court about his spending and earnings. His creditors have accused him of providing false and misleading information about his assets, and they claim he is using bankruptcy to avoid paying up.
“Since day one, Giuliani has regarded this case and the bankruptcy process as a joke,” his creditors wrote in a filing Monday, “hiding behind the façade of an elderly, doddering man who cannot even remember the address for his second multimillion dollar home and claims impending homelessness if he must sell that second multimillion dollar home.”
Although a committee of Giuliani’s creditors initially called for a Chapter 11 trustee to be appointed to control his assets, Freeman and Moss split from the group and requested that the case be dismissed so that they can begin to collect their money.
Giuliani, meanwhile, requested converting his bankruptcy case to Chapter 7 so that his assets could be liquidated. But in an eleventh-hour filing Wednesday, his lawyers agreed with Freeman and Moss’ proposal to dismiss the case entirely.
An attorney representing the creditors committee urged the judge Wednesday not to dismiss the case, arguing that doing so would only benefit Freeman and Moss and leave the other creditors hanging. But an attorney for the Georgia women argued that their case took precedence and that appointing a monitor to control Giuliani’s finances would be a waste of time and money.