Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judge Makes ‘DISTURBING’ FINDING on Trump’s BUD

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

A NY federal bankruptcy judge is “disturbed” by Rudy Giuliani’s conduct in violating court orders and has DENIED his request to appeal the $148 million defamation judgment against him held by Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman. Michael Popok breaks down how it happened and explains how quickly Rudy’s assets will now be liquidated to pay his $500 million in disclosed debts. Lomi: Visit https://Lomi.com/LEGALAF and use code LEGALAF and checkout to save $50! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/legalaf Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Michael Popak, Legal AF. Rudy Giuliani has gotten on the wrong side of another federal judge, and this time it means he's not going to be allowed to appeal the $148 million judgment obtained against him by Georgia election workers, Seamus and Ruby Freeman, because Judge Sean Lane of the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Judge is disturbed by the flouting of rules and law and legal process by Rudy Giuliani and he's not going to allow it to happen in his courtroom. There was a hearing and in the hearing recently Judge Lane said that he was frankly disturbed by the lack of contrition and the lack of compliance by Rudy Giuliani with the laws of his court,

particularly the bankruptcy code. Rudy has been playing fast and loose. He's failed to file on time or ever proper financial disclosure for his creditors. He's failed in the last year, or actually in the last six or seven months since he filed in December, he's failed to liquidate or sell any of his assets,

including not one, but two homes, one in New York and one in Florida seven months since he filed in December, he's failed to liquidate or sell any of his assets, including not one, but two homes, one in New York and one in Florida to satisfy creditors' judgments. He's got over $500 million worth of disclosed debt against him. He's showing assets of less than $5 million, but yet hasn't done a darn thing

to pay off any of the creditors. The largest creditor and on the creditor committee for the bankruptcy court is Sey Moss and Ruby Freeman. And their lawyer said point blank to Judge Lane in the hearing that Giuliani is playing rope-a-dope with the court. That he hasn't done a darn thing, has been no sale, no settlement,

no proper financial disclosure. And when the issue of Rudy Giuliani getting recently fired and having his radio show on WABC canceled, came up, the lawyer for Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss said that she believes that that was done on purpose in order to cut off a flow of income to Rudy Giuliani and therefore to the creditors. So they weren't buying any of this particular process at all. The issue also came up about Rudy Giuliani continuing to defame on his podcast and in other places,

Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, who are the judgment creditors in front of Judge Lane. So that issue is really before two courts right now. The Federal District Court, presided over by Barrel Howell, DC, who was the one that entered the default judgment against Rudy Giuliani for his failure there to comply with discovery obligations and his failure to do other things, six or seven different violations of discovery orders in that case got him a default judgment entered against him as a sanction.

Now Rudy stands up in bankruptcy court and says he wants to have what's called the automatic stay in bankruptcy court. Whenever you initially file, the debtor gets some sort of reprieve from existing litigation. If he's got cases against him, they get put on hold. There is a stay unless and until the bankruptcy court

lifts the stay to allow for the lawsuit against the bankrupt to continue. Sometimes the bankrupt, in this case Rudy Giuliani, the bankrupt party, whose estate is in bankruptcy, wants to pursue affirmative cases and spend money that in this case the estate doesn't have to pursue it. So, Rudy's and his lawyers has told Judge Lane, I want to spend money that I'm not sending to the creditors to go pursue my appeal because Judge Barrell Howell in the DC Court of Appeals

entered a default judgment against me because I didn't comply with rules there. And the judge says I could use a lot less kind words to describe what I'm observing, observing, observing, sorry, in this disturbing conduct by Rudy Giuliani in my courtroom. So the judge of course knows Drudi's done in other courtrooms and in other courthouses and how he's violated the rules there. And he's having none of it. Look, I wouldn't screw around with Judge Sean Lane. His reputation is unassailable. And as I've said before on other hot takes in another podcast, the power of a federal judge who's a bankruptcy judge is probably the only other judge who's more powerful

is a Supreme Court judge. Bankruptcy code gives federal judges lots of rights and lots of powers even above a normal federal judge. Yes, he's a federal judge, but a bankruptcy judge, an Article III bankruptcy judge has the most power of any federal judge to order whatever he wants. And he is annoyed and disturbed. I was actually surprised, and I did a hot take on this about a week ago, knowing Judge Lane's reputation, because I practice law in New York and in the

Southern District, I was surprised he let it go this far. That there had been no trustee appointed, that the case seemed to be languishing, that he was letting Giuliani get away with whatever he wanted since December. That's over. I'm not saying that Judge Lane watches Legal AF for my hot takes, but he certainly is now policing this bankruptcy the way that I thought that he always would

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and use promo code LegalAF at checkout. Thank you Lomi for sponsoring this episode. So where are we? It's an extraordinary thing. That's why I want to talk about the powers of the bankruptcy court. For a bankruptcy judge to say, no, you can't appeal. You're not allowed to appeal the judgment

of the judgment creditor who's holding $148 million judgment against you in this courtroom because it's not consistent with the fair administration of the bankruptcy proceeding. So denied, which means that judgment is the judgment. And Rudy's gonna have to deal with it. He's not gonna be able to delay the bankruptcy while he pursues some appeal that has no chance of success,

which I'm sure Judge Lane, in peeking at the grounds for the appeal, said, yeah, I'm not buying any of those grounds. And I can see the same conduct in my own courtroom in terms of flouting rules and orders of the court. So again, you know, you have the comeuppance of Rudy being hoisted on his own petard because he got a default judgment against him for not following the rules and violating judge's orders. And he's doing the same thing with Judge Lane in the bankruptcy court.

The last thing that came up during the hearing, which was very, very interesting, is this issue I started with, with the defamation. Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss are continuously defamed by Rudy Giuliani on his podcast at other places, even to this moment. Judge Beryl Howell is gonna have to deal with it in her courtroom,

because she presided over the original case in DC. But Judge Lane was not happy about it either. And he said, I don't like my processes in my courtroom being used for abuse. So tell your client, this is from the judge, tell your client to stop it, stop defaming.

It's a simple order. So you have now, if Rudy Giuliani continues to defame, it's going to be at the ire of Judge Lane of the Bankruptcy Court, who will then be able to throw the bankruptcy book at Rudy Giuliani. Here's what I think is gonna happen. He's got an apartment that he owns on the upper East side of New York that's worth, I don't know, maybe $6 million in this market.

That's getting sold. He's already declared Rudy that he wants to live in Florida. So that's getting sold. And the proceeds of that, I think it was taken off the market at one point. Once that's sold in the next three to six months, all of that proceeds is gonna go to Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss who are first in line, holding a judgment,

their judgment creditors first in line in priority against Rudy. After them are a bunch of unsecured creditors who don't have judgments or don't have liens against Rudy Giuliani. Then they're gonna start liquidating his bankiani. Then they're going to start liquidating his bank accounts. Then they're going to sell his jewelry and he's got two World Series rings for the New York Yankees when he was the, it's hard to believe he was once the mayor of New York,

when he was the mayor of New York, those get sold. That's another, I don't know, $50,000, $75,000. Okay. And then all this money through the bankruptcy court after administration is going to be paid over to the creditors. Once the money is collected, there'll probably have to be a trustee that handles the sale because we can't trust Rudy Giuliani, then there'll be an accounting of all of that. And then the judge is going to have to approve a plan of reorganization. He's either going to allow him to do what's called the Chapter 11 reorganization of his life and allow him to emerge from bankruptcy, or he's going to say, no, I don't see any plan here to emerge from bankruptcy. This is a seven, a Chapter 7, meaning a liquidation. I think he's going to

convert it to a Chapter 7. He's going to liquidate all of Rudy Giuliani's assets, leaving him with the clothes on his back. Take that money, let's say a total of seven or eight or nine million dollars, and he's going to distribute that to the judgment creditors first and then other creditors. So Ruby Freeman and Seymour may get, I don't know, two or three million dollars by the time the distribution is over, maybe six months from now. That's what I think is gonna happen. And then whatever additional monies that Rudy can bring in could also be earmarked and garnished for the benefit of the creditors. I mean, just to play out the theory that the lawyers for Ruby Freeman and Che Moss had

that Rudy's trying to cut off sources of income. You know, he may be trying to convert this into a chapter seven and liquidate everything, and then he doesn't have to continue to pay into the future. But these judgments, the judge will not discharge these judgments against him or his debts against him unless there's a viable plan for repayment. And so he won't get the benefits of the bankruptcy code. He won't be able to start over with a clean slate at all. We'll continue to follow everything

in Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy, which is just another page out of his playbook of delay and flouting the rules, violating the bankruptcy code, violating federal court orders, just being played out in Judge Lane's bankruptcy court now. Right here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. Join us on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time for our podcast.

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