Former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani asking for donations while claiming that he cannot buy food in his ongoing financial difficulties.

Sharing a link to his GiveSendGo fundraising page, Giuliani said his “cheap” checking account had been seized by a law firm and the judge involved in his defamation lawsuit brought by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss in 2020.

In December 2023, Giuliani was ordered to pay the mother and daughter $148 million in damages after they became victims of harassment and death threats when he and Donald Trump spreading allegations of voter fraud about the couple. Giuliani has so far failed to pay some of the money he owes Freeman and Moss.

Judge Lewis J. Liman of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Giuliani in late October to transfer most of his assets, including a New York apartment, luxury cars, watches and sports memorabilia, to the bankruptcy estate to help restore outstanding debt. Liman criticized Giuliani in a court hearing Thursday for misses the October 29 deadline to hand over the assets.

“Wilkie Farr Law Firm and Judge Liman are trying to stop me from making a living,” Giuliani wrote on X, ex Chirp. “They took my measly checking account so I can’t buy food. Help me fight.”

Newsweek has reached out to the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, which represented Freeman and Moss, and a Giuliani spokesperson for comment by email.

Giuliani denied defaming Freeman and Moss after Thursday’s court appearance and claimed he was the victim of political persecution. “There isn’t a person who doesn’t know the sentence is ridiculous,” he said.

Giuliani’s post resulted in a flood of donations to his fundraising page, which has so far raised more than $106,000.

“America’s mayor, Rudy Giuliani, has been prosecuted to the highest degree because of his support for President Donald Trump,” the campaign description reads. “That’s why we’re raising money to go directly to his legal defense.”

One person who donated $500 to the fund wrote on the GiveSendGo website: “You are the best leader my beloved city has ever had, and you are a magnificent patriot. God bless you.”

Giuliani appeared at a polling place in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 5 in passenger seat in a Mercedes car from the 1980s that the court had ordered him to surrender.

Ted Goodman, Giuliani’s spokesman, said in a statement to The Hill that the former New York mayor “has made his property and possessions available by order” and that he had been storing “some items” for the past year.

“Opposing attorneys, acting either negligently or knowingly in a fraudulent manner, are simply seeking to further bully and intimidate Mayor Giuliani until he is penniless and homeless,” Goodman said.

Attorney Aaron Nathan recently told Liman that Giuliani removed his $5 million Manhattan apartment weeks ago, despite a court order to hand over his assets.

“With the exception of a few rugs, a dining room table, some stray small furniture and cheap wall art, and a handful of smaller items like china and stereo equipment, the apartment has been emptied of all contents,” Nathan wrote in a press release. submission to Liman on 4 November.