Rudy Giuliani's creditors have told a judge that they want an investigation into the $2 million in legal fees that Donald Trump owes the former New York mayor.
Giuliani lost a $148 million lawsuit and has been disbarred as a lawyer as a result of his work for Trump, yet has never been paid for his services.
He told the deposition that the former president's campaign officers have ignored the numerous invoices he has sent and have only ever paid his expenses.
Newsweek sought email comment from Giuliani's spokesperson and from Trump's attorney on Tuesday.
In a court filing on Monday, lawyers for Giuliani's bankruptcy creditors appealed to Judge Sean Lane to appoint a trustee to take control of Giuliani's finances because they no longer trust him.
The creditors say that only an independent trustee will be willing to take the steps necessary to recover the $2 million that Trump owes Giuliani for legal fees incurred during the 2020 presidential election.
They wrote that a trustee is needed to get past Giuliani's constant evasion of his creditors.
They also claim that Giuliani "is unable to carry out his fiduciary duties to his estate and creditors." The creditors say such a trustee would be "supported by the [Creditors] Committee's institutional knowledge, goodwill and arsenal of resources" and is therefore "better equipped to deal with the serious investigations that are required of the Debtor [Giuliani]; the idiosyncrasies of this case and the games that the Debtor will surely try to continue to play.
"This includes investigations related to the assets listed on the Debtor's schedules that could yield additional recoveries for creditors, such as the Debtor's claim for fees for the provision of services to Donald Trump.
"Under oath, the Debtor estimated that he is owed 'about two million dollars' for those services."
As previously reported by Newsweek, Giuliani revealed the amount he is owed by Trump when he was deposed in February.
During the legal fight after the 2020 election, Giuliani made defamatory comments about two Georgia election workers. A Washington, D.C., jury awarded them $148 million in December 2023 for falsely claiming that the two had fixed the Georgia election for Joe Biden. Giuliani declared bankruptcy three days later.
On Wednesday, July 3, Giuliani's lawyers appeared in bankruptcy proceedings and announced that he wanted to liquidate his assets.
His creditors' lawyers strongly opposed the move and said that Giuliani was making his application just as the creditors were applying for full disclosure of his undisclosed assets and were seeking to appoint a trustee to oversee Giuliani's finances.
In a February 7 deposition before attorney Andrea Schwartz, from the Office of the United States Trustee, Giuliani said that he has never been paid anything by the Trump campaign.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more
