Dem
51
GOP
49
After getting socked with a $148 million judgment for defaming two Georgia election workers, Rudy Giuliani manned up—and filed for bankruptcy. Now his fate is in the hands of a bankruptcy judge. Giuliani wants to appeal the judgment in order to get the appeals court to lower the amount he has to pay, although it hardly matters. If the appeals court throws out 90% of the award and reduces it to $14.8 million, it won't help. Giuliani doesn't have that. He is close to broke. He still hasn't sold his Manhattan apartment, which he has been trying to unload for $6 million for half a year. Even if he sells it, he might not get the full $6 million since he may have a mortgage. We don't know.
But Giuliani has other bad luck to deal with. The bankruptcy judge, Sean Lane, has ruled that Giuliani may file an appeal only if he can find someone else to pay all the costs associated with the appeal. He is not allowed to use his own money (as if he had any), since that has to be reserved to pay the Georgia election workers who sued him.
Appeals are expensive. Can Giuliani raise that kind of money? It is not out of the question. He is a co-defendant, along with Donald Trump, in the Georgia RICO case. That defense is also going to cost him money. One way out would be to flip and testify against Trump. It is possible that some wealthy Trump supporter might be willing to help Giuliani out with both appealing the civil case and hiring counsel for the criminal case, in return for Giuliani not flipping. (V)