Judge Orders Rudy Giuliani To IMMEDIATELY Pay $148 Million Defamation Penalty

The judge that oversaw Rudy Giuliani's defamation trial has now ordered the former Mayor of New York to immediately pay the $148 million verdict that he received last week. The judge cited Giuliani's previous failures to satisfy his financial obligations in the case as the reason for the new demand, but Giuliani may not have the cash on hand to satisfy this request. Farron Cousins explains what could happen to Giuliani if he doesn't pay up.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Problems just got even worse for Rudy Giuliani this week. When the judge that oversaw his defamation trial, US district Judge Beryl Howell, agreed with the plaintiffs in the case that they should suspend, basically totally get rid of the 30 day waiting period before Giuliani had to pay the $146 million to the plaintiffs. The judge in her decision cited the fact that Rudy Giuliani has essentially failed to even pay some of the more, you know, lesser, I guess you would, uh, financial penalties in the case that started off the case, really. And, uh, because of that, she agrees with the plaintiffs that he cannot be trusted if he doesn't pay up right now, they were concerned that Giuliani in this 30 day period that he had been given, would attempt to conceal his assets to maybe sell off properties, to just shift money around in ways so the plaintiffs couldn't get their hands on it.

And the judge says, yeah, I don't trust the guy, so you've gotta pay up now. And you notice that I said 146 million, not 148 million. And that's because the plaintiffs did agree to reduce the, uh, uh, what was it? The, uh, compensatory damages by about $2 million. So it went from 1 48 to 1 46. Uh, I don't think that matters for Rudy Giuliani. I think he's definitely still screwed, like saving that two million's. Not like, oh, okay, yeah, I'm fine. But let me reach, let me read you some of this 'cause it's so wonderful. Uh, Howell cites Giuliani's history as a uncooperative litigant, his mounting debts from other court cases, and concerns that he will conceal his assets within the 30 day period as reasons to justify ordering the ending of the automatic stay. Howell also said that the former New York mayor's failure to quote, satisfy even more modest monetary awards entered earlier in this case, provides good cause to believe that he will seek to dissipate or conceal his assets during the 30 day period.

Uh, the plaintiffs had argued, quote, uh, Giuliani ignored several prior court orders to reimburse attorney's fees. His conduct in the matter presents a substantial risks, uh, that Giuliani will find a way to dissipate those assets before plaintiffs are able to recover. And that's actually key here, because here's what happens in a case where you're dealing with civil issues, not criminal issues. If Giuliani is unable to pay for this, you know, $146 million verdict against him, he cannot be thrown in jail. Okay? That's, that's the rule. It's not a criminal case. So he's not gonna go to jail for not being able to pay. They have several options, though, the first, one of the most obvious ones, they garnishes wages. Uh, I don't know that Giuliani's actually like pulling in wages, so to speak. So I don't think that that is

A good option. Giuliani, however, does have assets. Uh, we know that he owns multiple different properties and he could try to offload those properties basically, you know, do a fire sale, say like, Hey, I've got this condo in Manhattan that's worth 6 million. I'll give it to you for 1 million. You know, that way they cannot seize the property because that is the most likely thing that would happen, is that his assets would be frozen, his bank accounts would be frozen, the property would likely be seized by the court, possibly sold by the court, or straight up given to the plaintiffs. So, lots of different options here for getting money from Rudy Giuliani. The question is, does he have $146 million worth of assets? Doesn't seem like it. I mean that it's hard to find people with $146 million worth of assets. So it's likely that even if this number is upheld by the courts on appeal, I don't think the plaintiffs are ever gonna get close to getting $146 million, whether it's through, you know, cash or, you know, prizes through Giuliani. I, I simply just don't think he has it. And obviously at his age, he's not gonna be able to go work a regular job to garnish his wages enough to give these people what they deserve. And that's what the jury said they deserve.