Politics

Poor Rudy?

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 13, 2001 / 12:04 PM EDT / CBS

The lawyer in Mayor Rudy Giuliani's messy divorce battle says Gotham's chief executive is down to his last $7,000.

Attorney Raoul Felder told reporters that the mayor has only $7,000 in the bank, while Giulian's estranged wife, Donna Hanover, has about $250,000.

"The mayor spends his money supporting the family," Felder said. "Ms. Hanover puts her money in bank accounts in her name."

Giuliani earns $195,000 a year, and the couple own two co-ops on Manhattan's upper East Side, one valued at more than $500,000.

The mayor has also signed a book deal reportedly worth about $3 million.

Hanover's representatives declined to comment.

Hanover and Giuliani, who have been married 16 years, have two children, Andrew, 15, and Caroline, 11, who live at Gracie Mansion, the mayor's residence where most public events are held.

In a related development, state Justice Judith Gische, who is handling the Giuliani divorce, said she saw no reason to grant a motion to remove herself from the case. Felder filed the motion last week.

Felder, who also represents Giuliani's girlfriend, Judith Nathan, said he asked Gische to step aside because she was "duped into reading defamatory material about Ms. Nathan" when ex-husband Bruce Nathan asked for custody of their 16-year-old daughter.

Gische said Felder's companion request for her to bow out of the Nathan's custody case was premature since she had not agreed to accept it. Subsequently, she sent the custody case back for reassignment and it went to Justice Richard Braun.