Business

Rudy Giuliani’s Financial Troubles Are Adding Up As IRS Takes Action—Here’s What We Know

October 7, 2023

Topline

Attorney Rudy Giuliani owes more than $500,000 in unpaid taxes and the Internal Revenue Service has put a lien on his property in Florida, according to multiple reports, the latest in a string of recent reports and admissions in court filings regarding the Trump attorney’s financial issues as Giuliani comes under mounting legal scrutiny for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Rudy Giuliani talks to members of the press before he leaves the U.S. District Court on May 19 in … [+] Washington, D.C.

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Key Facts

Giuliani owes $549,435.26 in unpaid taxes from 2021, multiple outlets reported Thursday, and the IRS has put a lien on his property in Palm Beach, Florida, though advisor Ted Goodman said in a statement Thursday that Giuliani, “through his accountant, has a formal agreement with the IRS to pay off the liability.”

Giuliani has faced a series of legal repercussions for his efforts to overturn the 2020 vote count, and had his electronics seized by federal investigators for a separate (now closed) probe in April 2021, which the attorney has said in court filings resulted in him having to pay high fees to the vendor, Trustpoint, that’s hosting his data from the seized devices.

The attorney has been ordered to pay more than $89,000 in attorneys fees in a defamation case brought against him by two Georgia election workers—in which he’s been found liable for defamation—plus additional attorneys fees and $43,684 on behalf of his business, which he has so far failed to pay as required, with Giuliani’s attorney citing his “financial difficulties.”

His financial problems have also been an issue in voting company Smartmatic’s defamation case against him, with the company alleging Giuliani hasn’t turned over any evidence as part of the case, to which Giuliani’s attorneys argued in August he has “limited financial resources” and that Trustpoint is still asking for between $15,000 and $23,000 to help turn over the evidence required, which is “money that Mr. Giuliani cannot afford to pay at this point.”

Beyond his election-related legal woes, the former New York City mayor has also put his Upper East Side apartment on the market for $6.5 million, his consulting firm Giuliani Partners LLC defaulted on a debt for a phone bill and was ordered to pay $57,655 in late July, and Giuliani was held in contempt last year for failing to make payments to his ex-wife.

Giuliani’s former attorney Robert Costello sued the former mayor in September over his failure to pay nearly $1.4 million in legal bills—which Giuliani has argued “is way in excess to anything approaching legitimate fees”—and multiple attorneys have asked the court to withdraw from representing him in his indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, for trying to overturn the 2020 election, though they did not directly cite his financial issues.

Crucial Quote

“These are a lot of bills that he’s not paying,” Katz said at an August hearing in the Smartmatic case, as quoted by CNN. “I think this is very humbling for Mr. Giuliani.”

Big Number

$400,000. That’s approximately how much Giuliani earns each year from his radio show, the New York Times reported based on an anonymous source, along with some income from his podcast and a livestream podcast. That income is “nowhere near enough to cover his debts,” the Times reports.

Surprising Fact

Giuliani has traveled to Mar-A-Lago “to make a personal and desperate appeal” for former President Donald Trump to pay Giuliani’s legal bills, the Times and CNN reported citing anonymous sources, adding Trump reportedly “didn’t seem very interested” in paying the fees but made a “verbal agreement” to pay some costs. His PAC ultimately paid $340,000 to cover some of Giuliani’s Trustpoint fees, and Trump hosted a fundraiser in September for Giuliani’s legal bills at his Bedminister, New Jersey, club. While Giuliani led the Trump campaign’s ultimately unsuccessful legal efforts following the 2020 election, campaign records suggest Trump did not actually pay Giuliani for his work beyond travel reimbursements. The Times reports Giuliani asked Trump to pay for that work when he traveled to Mar-A-Lago—after he previously requested $20,000 per day for his legal services—and while Trump initially “resisted,” noting all the cases were unsuccessful, he later “agreed that Mr. Giuliani would be paid.”

Contra

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said in her ruling finding Giuliani liable for defamation in the Georgia election workers case that she was unpersuaded by Giuliani’s argument that he can’t pay the fees he’s been ordered to pay in the case and wants to defer the payments until after the case wraps up. The judge said claims that Giuliani couldn’t reimburse the attorneys’ fees were “dubious,” given that Giuliani was able to pay more than $320,000 to the vendor holding his electronic data, had recently listed his New York City apartment for $6.5 million and reportedly flew “on a private plane” to Georgia to surrender to authorities after being indicted there.

What To Watch For

Giuliani has been indicted on 13 counts in Fulton County, Georgia, for his role in helping to try and overturn the election results, one of 19 total defendants who were charged in the case, including Trump. The attorney has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and no trial has been scheduled yet in his case. Giuliani has also been identified as a “co-conspirator” in the Justice Department’s separate investigation into the election’s aftermath, but he has not been formally charged in that case—though prosecutors have not ruled out that additional charges could be brought. In the Georgia election workers case, a trial will be held starting December 11 to determine what damages Giuliani will have to pay in the case, after he was found liable for defamation because he hadn’t turned over evidence in the case, in part due to his financial difficulties. The plaintiffs have argued the court should impose additional sanctions on Giuliani as he has continued to fail to pay the fees he owes in the case.

Key Background

Giuliani served as Trump’s personal attorney before spearheading the ex-president’s post-election legal campaign, which ultimately was unsuccessful and only resulted in one minor win. The attorney only directly represented Trump in court in one case in Pennsylvania—which failed—and was also involved in other efforts to overturn the results that prosecutors have now alleged were illegal, such as pressuring state legislators to reject their states’ results. Trump cut ties with Giuliani in mid-February 2021 as the lawyer began to face legal repercussions for his post-election efforts, with Trump advisor Jason Miller saying at the time that Giuliani was “not currently” representing Trump “in any legal matters.” Giuliani has also had his law license suspended in New York and Washington, D.C., as a result of him helping Trump, and is facing a separate defamation case from Dominion Voting Systems in addition to the Smartmatic and election worker cases. The attorney is one of several Trump-allied lawyers who are now facing consequences for their post-election activities and were indicted in Fulton County, including Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Jeffrey Clark.