Rudy Giuliani said he was forced to borrow $100,000 from President Donald Trump’s lawyer Marc Mukasey to pay his taxes after his wife tied up a joint bank account in their bitter divorce case.
Giuliani, who has been working as a lawyer for Trump free of charge, discussed the loan outside New York state court in Manhattan after his wife’s lawyer raised it at a hearing on Thursday.
Giuliani, 75, argues his income is drying up as the divorce case drags on, and that $800,000 he’s made so far this year from other business ventures has been spent entirely on “marital expenses” tied to the couple’s lavish lifestyle. Giuliani said he still owes $10,000 to Mukasey, who used to be his law partner.
“I had to borrow the money to pay taxes, because she was holding up the account,” he said outside the courtroom. “I’ll pay that back to him as soon as this is decided.”
Justice Michael Katz said he’ll rule soon on how and when the couple can access the account, as the case heads toward trial in January, and ordered Giuliani to sit for five more hours of depositions in the case.
Mukasey declined to comment in an email.
Too old to work
Giuliani’s lawyer, Faith Miller, told Katz that Judith Giuliani refuses to take a job to contribute to their estate, which is valued at about $30 million, including real estate and retirement accounts.
“Ms. Giuliani testified she’s 64 and far too old to work,” Miller told the judge. “She’s a registered nurse. She refuses to do anything.”
Judith Giuliani came to court Thursday with allegations of her own. Her lawyer Bernard Clair renewed a claim that Rudy Giuliani was wrongfully deflating his income, including by turning down a high-paying job as a lawyer in February and squandering his money working for Trump.
“Not only does he work for free, but all of his expenses every time he goes down to Washington, D.C., or travels with the president, it comes out of his own pocket,” Clair said at the hearing. “And he won’t say how much it’s costing him.”
Giuliani has denied the claim and argues that the high-paying job offer he allegedly received, for $6 million a year, was a draft offer and was rescinded.
Giuliani remained quiet and composed during the hearing, in contrast to an outburst in March when he shouted at his wife’s lawyer and drew a rebuke from the judge. On Thursday, it was Judith Giuliani who was rebuked after she loudly denied a claim that she’s stripped their Manhattan condo of items that didn’t belong to her, including rugs and framed photographs.
“She took everything,” Miller said.
“I did not!” she shouted, pounding the table.
“I’m not going to tolerate any outbursts,” the judge said.
Judith Giuliani spent the rest of the hearing seated away from the table and staring out a window. After the hearing, she said she was entitled to items she took and that her husband was refusing to return her grandmother’s Christmas decorations.
“I was entitled to my family antiques, and he knows that,” she said.
