On Friday evening, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani reportedly posted a message and photo of himself on X surrounded by party guests taunting Arizona prosecutors that eventually backfired, making him the bud of jokes as his legal troubles related to the 2020 presidential elections continue to mount.
“If Arizona authorities can’t find me by tomorrow morning. 1. They must dismiss the indictment; 2. They must concede they can’t count votes,” Giuliani wrote in a now-deleted post.
According to reports, Giuliani was served with a notice of the indictment hours later at his 80th birthday party in Palm Beach, Florida. A screenshot of the deleted tweet shows Giuliani and other partygoers smiling and posing with balloons. The photo has since gone viral, making Giuliani the laughingstock of X. According to local ABC reporter Rachel Louise Just, guests said Trump’s former lawyer was served right after they sang the birthday song.
One person put the sad affair succinctly in a post on X,
“The downfall of Rudy Giuiliani is remarkable. He was America’s Mayor. He was Time’s Man of the Year. Many thought he would be President.
Now he’s broke, facing serious criminal charges, and his legacy will be the series of increasingly embarrassing mishaps and cringe stunts he participated in as a part of Trump’s inner circle.
He’ll be remembered as a joke.”
“Rudy Giuliani, seen celebrating his 80th birthday, was served a big slice of cake and an indictment. It proves that “You can have your cake and indict Rudy too,” one X user wrote.
🚨 BREAKING: Rudy Giuliani, seen celebrating his 80th birthday, was served a big slice of cake and an indictment. It proves that, "You can have your cake and indict Rudy too." pic.twitter.com/uTtLiWRZHJ
— Jeff Dunn (@JeffDun85374706) May 18, 2024
Giuliani is accused of aiding 11 Arizona Republicans who cast electoral votes for Donald Trump instead of Joe Biden after the 2020 election, even though Biden was the rightful winner. The 11 electors, along with six other defendants, were also indicted.
This comes as Giuliani is facing another lawsuit for continuing to make false claims that two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, participated in voting fraud during the 2020 presidential election when President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump.
The two Black election workers recently won a $148 million defamation judgment against him but have now filed a new lawsuit, seeking a court injunction that would block Giuliani from continuing to make his election-related allegations against Freeman and Moss.
The complaint does not explicitly seek monetary damages, although paperwork filed with the case says it is seeking relief worth more than $75,000, as reported by Politico. In their complaint recently filed, Freeman and Moss are asking the court to bar Giuliani from “repeating the defamatory statements for which he has been held liable” as well as “any substantially similar statements.”
The 13-page lawsuit provides details surrounding Giuliani’s continuous attacks through his social media and media outlets, allegedly defaming the two Georgia election workers.
“Mr. Giuliani’s persistence in making these statements after all that has transpired, coupled with his refusal to agree to refrain from continuing to make such statements, make clear that he intends to continue in his campaign of targeted defamation and harassment,” the claim says. “There is an overwhelming, ongoing, and imminent risk that Mr. Giuliani will inflict substantial reputational and emotional harm on Plaintiffs [Freeman and Moss]. This has to stop.”
Also, Freeman and Moss urged U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell to expedite efforts to enforce the $148 million judgment, citing reports of Giuliani’s skyrocketing debts and insolvency. They argued that Giuliani has already refused for months to pay the fees awarded in this court’s prior sanctions orders.
Meanwhile, a New York bankruptcy judge rejected Giuliani’s request to pursue an appeal of the $148 million defamation judgment and expressed frustration with the lack of progress in the five-month-old case, according to multiple news sources. The judge overseeing Giuliani’s bankruptcy case said he was “disturbed,” so little progress has been made in sorting out his finances.
As reported by The Associated Press, Giuliani declared bankruptcy in December after he was ordered to pay a whopping sum to the two former election workers for spreading a false conspiracy theory about what he claimed was their role in falsifying results in the 2020 election. Since then, Giuliani has missed deadlines to file financial disclosure reports and hasn’t succeeded in selling residences in New York and Florida.
According to reports, the judge rejected a request from Giuliani to lift an automatic stay so that he could pursue post-judgment litigation in the defamation case. Creditors’ lawyers argued that doing so would delay the bankruptcy proceeding.
The lawsuit states that after filing for bankruptcy, Giuliani used the automatic halt on the plaintiff’s injunction request to continue spreading the same falsehoods for which he was previously found liable. It gives examples of Giuliani using his social media to spread baseless claims of voting fraud.
On Jan. 5, Giuliani reportedly appeared on his daily Twitter live cast, “America’s Mayor Live,” and said: “[t]he case was in Georgia, the two women, I could play the tapes for you right now of one of them counting ballots four times. I wasn’t allowed to play it at the trial, she’ll probably put me in jail if I play them.”
“God forbid you should find out the truth,” he continued. “Because we don’t live in a free country any longer. We’re free as long as we do what the Biden regime requires us to do, which is to submit to the lie that the election of 2020 was legitimate. Submit to the lie that these women didn’t do multiple counts of the ballot. Submit to the lie that Atlanta, Georgia didn’t engage in election fraud, it would almost be inconsistent in who they are if they didn’t engage in election fraud.”
While Giuliani appears to be mum about the Black election workers for now, he responded to reports that his birthday party was ruined by the indictment notice.
“Contrary to reports from journalists who weren’t there, our early 80th birthday celebration wasn’t “ruined” or interrupted. It was an incredible night w/ friends, including Steve Bannon & Roger Stone. It felt like a strategy session on how to save America!” he wrote in an X post on Saturday afternoon.
