So what happens next now that Giuliani has vowed to appeal the ruling against him, and what are the chances Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman ever see a dime of the $148M judgment?
The Washington Post has a good explainer on the judgment, the appeals process, and what's next for the plantiffs:
What happens before plaintiffs can collect?
Chris Mattei, who represented the families of the Sandy Hook mass killing victims who secured a $1.5 billion judgment against Infowars host Alex Jones for defamation, said Giuliani can probably delay paying this penalty in several ways.
“Giuliani is certain to appeal, and while any appeal is pending, the plaintiffs won’t have a final judgment to enforce,” Mattei said. Giuliani can argue that Judge Beryl A. Howell was wrong to find him liable for defamation before trial and that the jury’s award was unreasonable. But Mattei said the women can move to require Giuliani to pay a bond that would keep him from drawing down his assets while the appeal is pending.
Can Giuliani avoid paying by going bankrupt?
No, according to former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade. On Thursday night, she said on MSNBC that debts for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress cannot be eliminated through bankruptcy.
But that doesn’t mean he won’t try to re-litigate whether his conduct was, in the words of bankruptcy law, “willful and malicious.” Jones did exactly that. That fight would take place before a bankruptcy judge and is another way Giuliani could delay payment. During that time, the former New York mayor “could … try to negotiate some kind of post-verdict settlement,” Mattei said. Sandy Hook families recently offered to settle with Jones for around $85 million.
And, as Lisa Rubin discussed on MSNBC this Saturday, Moss and Freeman are going to gave to get in line with Giuliani's other creditors.
VELSHI: And how do you collect on this, from a guy like this who is widely reported to be broke?
RUBIN: You get in line, let's start there, because Rudy Giuliani, as mentioned, already has creditors, right? He owes money not only to other people that he's currently in litigation with, but more importantly, he owes money to attorneys that he hasn't paid, he likely has contractors who have not been paid, but more importantly he's going to have to have a fire sale of some of the assets if this judgment stands.
We already noted that his apartment at $6.1 million is on the market. One of the things that the folks that represent Ruby and Shaye are going to have to do though, with diligence in the coming month, is discover where those assets are in addition to the apartment. That's something that they've been trying to do unsuccessfully for many months already, and that is a chase that will continue into the future.
And here's more from Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice with screengrabs of attorney Ken White's input on the case that he posted on BlueSky:
