In a new legal blow against Rudy Giuliani, a federal judge has ordered the former New York City mayor to pay fines and face a trial in a defamation case involving two Georgia election workers.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled in favor of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss by default, concluding that Giuliani was liable for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy. Now, he must pay sanctions to them both.
Freeman and Moss both sued Giuliani for defamation in December 2021 after he made and promoted false and inflammatory statements that the pair committed election fraud and stole votes in Fulton County, Georgia, after the 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani didn’t do much to curry favor in the case after refusing to turn over discovery documents. He did concede last month that the statements he made about Freeman and Moss were defamatory, but Judge Howell said those concessions “hold more holes than Swiss cheese” after Giuliani made stipulations to try to move past the discovery obligations while working to dismiss the case altogether.
“The reservations in Giuliani’s stipulations make clear his goal to bypass the discovery process and a merits trial — at which his defenses may be fully scrutinized and tested in our judicial system’s time-honored adversarial process — and to delay such a fair reckoning by taking his chances on appeal, based on the abbreviated record he forced on plaintiffs,” Howell wrote in a 57-page opinion.
Howell ordered Giuliani and his businesses to pay a combined $133,000 to reimburse legal fees the election workers incurred.
He also has the chance to turn over discovery before the trial for this case, which will determine the amount of other damages he is responsible for. Both Freeman and Moss sought unspecified damages in the case, but they could amount to thousands, if not millions, according to CNN.
That trial will take place either later this year or early 2024.
This case is directly connected to charges Giuliani faces in the Georgia election interference indictment alongside a cohort of co-conspirators as well as his longtime ally, Donald Trump. That indictment alleges that more than a dozen people, including Trump himself, made a number of efforts to reverse his loss in Georgia during the 2020 election cycle.
Giuliani’s attorneys report that the former mayor faces mounting “financial troubles” that are connected to millions he’s spent defending himself in federal and state criminal cases. His lawyers mentioned in an earlier court filing that paying damages in this case would burden their client and place him in even dicier straits.
CNBC’s latest report reveals that Giuliani is facing a lack of support from some of his former financial backers during his current legal challenges.
“I wouldn’t give him a nickel,” said billionaire investor Leon Cooperman, who had previously contributed to Giuliani’s unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign. “I’m very negative on Donald Trump. It’s an American tragedy. He was ‘America’s mayor.’ He did a great job. And like everybody else who gets involved with Trump, it turns to s–t.”
NASCAR CEO Brian France echoed this sentiment, asserting that he would not be contributing to Giuliani’s legal defense fund. France expressed disappointment in the transformation of Giuliani from the figure he once supported during the 2008 campaign to the person he is today.
