By: Benyamin Davidsons

A federal judge is warning former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani that he can drag him back to court to pay administrative fees in his recently dismissed bankruptcy case.

Giuliani, 80, has yet to pay the standard administrative fees in relation to his Chapter 11 case, saying he is too broke to make the payments. The nonpayment, however, legally delays and halts the case from being officially dismissed. “An order dismissing the case has not been entered due to a dispute regarding the payment of administrative expenses incurred during the case,” Judge Sean H. Lane wrote in a July 25 letter, “namely, whether and how the Debtor will pay such expenses.”

Endearingly nicknamed, “America’s Mayor”, following his heroic response to the 9/11 terror attacks, Guiliani was entangled for several months in a bankruptcy trial for his “repeated failure” to be financially transparent, Lane wrote. The case was dismissed on July 12th. It is not clear how much in fees Giuliani owes for the case. A lawyer, unaffiliated with the case, suggested that legal fees can sometimes rise to six figures, though Giuliani’s debt is likely lower, based on the duration of the case.

Giuliani, a Republican, had served as personal lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump, after which he himself suffered numerous legal woes, which led to his deteriorated financial situation. His rare legal win, where the judge tossed the latest Chapter 11 case, will allow Giuliani to appeal the $148 million defamation judgment stacked against him, awarded to Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss, two election workers he allegedly defamed by falsely claiming they manipulated votes in Georgia.

Giuliani had filed for bankruptcy in December, because he said he could not pay the $148 million. The bankruptcy froze all the other civil litigation against Giuliani. Giuliani’s assets are said to be worth roughly $10 million, depending on the price he could get if he sold his apartments in Manhattan’s Upper East Side and in Florida.

Giuliani has not paid the administrative fees associated with the bankruptcy case, but according to the judge has not provided evidence that he is unable to pay. “Instead, the Debtor has simply refused to pay these expenses,” Lane wrote in the July 25 letter.

The letter said Giuliani may have to give further “testimony under oath,” despite the chance that “this path might mirror in some ways the unsuccessful efforts at financial transparency that have plagued the case to date.”

Judges in such cases judges sometimes do dismiss pro-forma fees if they are proven to be unaffordable, but Lane seems to be pursuing full payment from Giuliani, saying the former tough-on-crime prosecutor does have assets. Lane said the court and Giuliani’s team might even need to reconsider the case’s dismissal and impose a trustee to oversee the former mayor’s assets and to “promptly liquidate assets such as the New York apartment as appropriate.”

Giuliani’s lawyers didn’t return the Post’s request for comment on Monday.

Besides holding the position of legal counsel for former President Trump, Giuliani served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983 and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989.