Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy stay in $10 million sexual harassment case

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is trying to delay his $10 million sexual harassment and assault lawsuit after claiming he is not yet out of bankruptcy.

On July 24, New York Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Moyne ruled that New York Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane had “dismissed the bankruptcy case against Rudolph W. Giuliani” and ordered the sexual harassment case involving former Giuliani associate Noelle Dunphy to proceed. Moyne had stayed Dunphy’s case after Giuliani filed for bankruptcy last December.

However, in his latest filing in the sexual harassment case, Giuliani’s lawyer Adam Katz said reopening the case was “inappropriate,” adding that the former New York mayor is still in bankruptcy proceedings.

“Defendants believe that lifting the bankruptcy stay is premature and improper in light of a decision by the Honorable Sean Lane in the Giuliani bankruptcy case … which raises the question of whether the bankruptcy petition will actually be dismissed.”

Katz filed the motion over the weekend after Moyne scheduled a hearing in the sexual harassment case for July 31. That’s when the parties are scheduled to discuss three of Dunphy’s allegations: sexual harassment, assault and wage theft, which Giuliani vehemently denies. Newsweek asked his spokesman for comment via email on Monday.

Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in December 2023 after a jury awarded $148 million to two Georgia election workers who won a defamation lawsuit against him. As Trump’s attorney in 2020, Giuliani falsely claimed that mother and daughter Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss committed voter fraud while counting votes in Fulton County.

Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection to avoid administration by a court-appointed trustee who would oversee all of his financial transactions on behalf of creditors.

The Dunphy case is just one of several major legal battles Giuliani faces following his bankruptcy.

Giuliani also faces a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Machines, which accuses him of falsely claiming that its voting machines were rigged in Joe Biden’s favor in the 2020 presidential election. Dominion filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Giuliani in January 2021.

The company has already settled a similar lawsuit against Fox News for $787.5 million, meaning a settlement with Giuliani would likely be in the hundreds of millions.

In addition to these two major lawsuits, Giuliani’s list of bankruptcy creditors also includes Citibank, the Emerald Dunes golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, and a large number of law firms.

He still owes $148 million from the Georgia election dispute.