Giuliani arrives at the polls in a Mercedes, which he was supposed to give to election workers Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani showed up in Florida on Tuesday to vote in the presidential election in a Mercedes-Benz convertible. A court ordered him to surrender more than a week ago as part of a $148 million settlement with two Georgia election workers he defamed.

The 1980s car, once owned by actress Lauren Bacall, is among the assets of the disgraced former New York mayor and vocal supporter of Donald Trump that Giuliani is deliberately hiding from her reach, according to a letter sent to her lawyer Aaron Nathan sent to the New York Times judge in the case.

Additionally, Nathan said, the contents of Giuliani's $5 million Manhattan apartment, to which the couple is also entitled, were taken several weeks ago, in violation of Judge Lewis Liman's bankruptcy order. Nathan said Giuliani intentionally ignored the court's deadline for turning over the assets.

“(Giuliani) has not yet disclosed where the majority of the bankruptcy assets are actually located, despite repeated requests to his attorney,” said the letter, sent on behalf of election worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss.

“This silence is particularly outrageous given that the defendant appears to have taken positive steps in recent weeks to remove his belongings from the New York apartment while a restraining order was in effect. “In addition, despite the cooperative attitude he displayed in his letter of October 29, the insolvency administrators’ inquiries were largely answered with evasion or silence.”

In addition to the Upper East Side apartment, Giuliani was ordered to turn in several New York Yankees memorabilia and about two dozen luxury watches.

In response to the letter, Liman has ordered Giuliani to appear at a hearing in New York on Thursday. Giuliani's lawyer, Kenneth Caruso, has requested a delay so that his client can fulfill his obligation to host a Florida radio show that evening.

Giuliani, wearing a New York City Fire Department hat and a stars and stripes shirt, was pictured arriving at the polling station in Palm Beach on Tuesday in the passenger seat of the Mercedes SL500. He spoke to reporters but did not comment on the settlement.

Caruso denied in a court filing last week that Giuliani was obstructive. “(He) is and remains prepared to comply with Liman's order,” Caruso said – but claimed that Giuliani, who filed for bankruptcy last year, had not been given any information on how to comply, The Hill reported.

Nathan said this claim was “misleading”.

Giuliani's spokesman Ted Goodman, meanwhile, told the Hill in a statement that he had “provided his property and possessions as ordered” and that he had placed “some items” in storage over the past year.

Everything else that was removed had to do with Giuliani's nightly livestreams, Goodman claimed, claiming that it was therefore outside the scope of the agreement. A separate legal battle is underway over Giuliani's Palm Beach apartment.

In a subsequent statement to the Guardian on Tuesday, Goodman said Giuliani made efforts to hand over the car.

“Our attorneys have requested documents regarding the transfer of title to the vehicle and have received no response from opposing attorneys,” he said.

“This is another attempt to leave Mayor Rudy Giuliani – a man who has improved the lives of more people than almost any other living American – destitute and homeless.” Weaponizing our once-sacred justice system should affect every American, regardless of who they are party political affiliation.”

Separately, Michael Ragusa, Giuliani's security chief, appeared to defend the disbarred lawyer's retention of the Mercedes-Benz in his own statement.

“Mayor Giuliani is an 80-year-old man with a bad knee and lung disease related to 9/11. “He relies on this vehicle as his primary means of transportation in Florida, which does not have a public transit system like New York City’s,” he said.

“He currently holds an active Florida driver’s license. The way he is being pushed into poverty by those who target him is appalling and clearly politically motivated after everything he has done for this country.”

In July, a judge dismissed Giuliani's bankruptcy case, clearing the way for Freeman and Moss to begin collecting compensation. But Nathan said in Monday's letter that Giuliani “refused or was unable to answer basic questions about the location of most of the property.”

He wrote: “The visit to the apartment, which, in the opinion of all parties, was intended to assess the transportation and storage needs of the bankruptcy property contained therein, instead revealed that the apartment was substantially empty.”

Freeman and Moss said they received death threats and constant intimidation after the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden, when Giuliani amplified a misleading video and falsely accused them of illegal activity during vote counting in Atlanta on election night.

The couple were officially cleared of any wrongdoing by investigators, and a jury ruled that Giuliani owed them $148 million for spreading lies about them.

The pair subsequently settled similar defamation suits with far-right media outlets Gateway Pundit and One America News.

Giuliani has at times been an advocate for Trump, who is running for the presidency again on Tuesday in a contest between him and Kamala Harris.

Read more of the Guardian's coverage of the 2024 US election