Rudy Giuliani, Who Filed for Bankruptcy Last Year, Can’t Get By on a $43,000-a-Month Budget

After Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy last year, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the election workers to whom he was ordered to pay $148 million after being found liable for defamation, called bullshit. Specifically, they alleged in a court filing that the former New York City mayor had filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to avoid paying them what they were owed, saying he had “a history of engaging the judicial system in bad faith” and that his tactics were an obvious attempt to “hold off creditors” and “gut their legal rights.” And while Giuliani very likely does not have nearly $150 million, he very clearly has some money left in the bank. Though, based on spending habits that have recently come to light, that sum is dwindling every day.

The New York Times reports that despite agreeing in bankruptcy court to stick to a comical monthly budget of $43,000—about the amount he draws from Social Security and retirement accounts—the mayor turned Trump attorney spent nearly $120,000 in January. That figure covered “60 transactions on Amazon, multiple entertainment subscriptions, various Apple services and products, Uber rides, and payment of some of his business partner’s personal credit card bill.” What’s his spending been like in the months since? We don’t know because, per the Times, “he has failed to submit required disclosures to the bankruptcy court.” And unsurprisingly, his creditors are pissed—not only because he’s apparently spending like a sailor on leave, but also because they suspect he’s lying about the value of his assets.

Per the Times:

His creditors also do not trust that he is being honest about the assets he does disclose. For example, Mr. Giuliani lists among his assets an undisclosed number of shares in Uber, the ride-share service. He declared that he has $30,000 worth of jewelry, but that includes three World Series rings from the New York Yankees that creditors estimate are worth about $15,000 each. He also failed to disclose a publishing contract for his upcoming book, The Biden Crime Family.

“As my mother would say, they don’t trust Giuliani as far as they could throw him,” Northwestern law professor Bruce A. Markell told the Times. (In a statement, a spokesman for Giuliani said: “These superfluous court filings are simply part of a larger effort to bully and intimidate the mayor through lawfare and a public smear campaign.”)

Meanwhile, the people he owes money to are also calling bullshit on his argument that he must keep living in a multimillion-dollar home, otherwise he might as well be living on the street.

These days, Mr. Giuliani brings in about $550,000 a year through disbursements from his dwindling retirement accounts and Social Security. His creditors want him to sell his properties in New York and Florida. But Mr. Giuliani recently told the bankruptcy court he would like to keep the Florida condo and live in it, suggesting that his creditors would not want him to be homeless. His creditors are skeptical.

“It seems hardly worth pointing out that there is a vast gulf of housing options available between residing in an approximately $3.5 million Palm Beach condominium and homelessness,” lawyers for the creditors wrote in a court filing.

Unfortunately for Giuliani, he has one very big, ongoing expense, which is paying for lawyers to defend him against various state-level criminal charges. Last month he was charged in Arizona for trying to overturn the 2020 election results there, after being similarly charged in Georgia last year. (He has denied all wrongdoing.) Two legal defense funds have been set up to help him—one is a PAC whose donors include the widow of Fox News chief Roger Ailes, per the Times, while the other, the Rudy Giuliani Freedom Fund, does not disclose its donors. According to a court filing, Giuliani has thus far used at least $1.2 million from the funds to pay his attorneys.

Fact check: The gag order absolutely does not prohibit him from testifying