Rudy Giuliani speaks outside the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on Wednesday, August 23, 2023. Giuliani has surrendered to authorities in Georgia and faces charges for acting as a prime co-conspirator to former President Donald Trump in a conspiracy to suppress the 2020 election. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
By ERIC TUCKER (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday held Rudy Giuliani liable in a defamation lawsuit filed by two Georgia poll workers who said they had been falsely accused of fraud, ruling that the former New York City mayor was “just “lip service” to complying with his legal obligations while attempting to portray himself as a victim of the case.
US District Judge Beryl Howell said the punishment was necessary because Giuliani failed in his duty as a defendant to release information requested by poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea’ ArShaye Moss as part of their lawsuit.
The decision will see the case heard in Washington, which could result in Giuliani being sentenced to pay substantial damages to the women on top of the tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees he already has to pay.
The December 2021 workers’ complaint accused Giuliani, one of Donald Trump’s attorneys and confidante of the former Republican president, of defaming them by falsely claiming they committed fraud at the counting ceremony at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.
In a statement on Wednesday, the women said they experienced a “living nightmare” and an unimaginable “surge of hate and threats” over Giuliani’s comments.
“Nothing can restore everything we’ve lost, but today’s verdict is another neutral finding that confirms what we always knew: that none of the allegations against us were true and that we did nothing wrong.” We have been vilified for purely political reasons and those responsible can and should be held accountable,” they said.
The verdict increases legal vulnerability for Giuliani at a time when he and Trump are both among 19 defendants charged this month in a racketeering case related to efforts to overturn the 2020 Georgia election. There’s also the possibility of a massive fine for Giuliani if the case moves to a federal trial in Washington, where a jury would decide the damages he may be liable for.
He will have a “last chance” to provide the requested information, known by law as disclosure, but could face additional penalties if he fails to do so. In the meantime, Howell said Giuliani and his companies would have to pay more than $130,000 in legal fees.
Howell has expressed skepticism about Giuliani’s claims that he cannot afford to pay compensation to the plaintiffs in the case, noting that he recently listed his Manhattan apartment for $6.5 million and reports flew to Atlanta on a private plane to face the charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
“On a public stage it may be good for certain viewers to don a cloak of victimization, but in court that appearance has only served to subvert the normal process of discovery in a simple libel case, with the attendant need for a repeat trial .” Intervention,” Howell wrote.
Howell said that aside from an initial 193-page document output, the information Giuliani turned over consisted largely of “a single page of notices, clumps of undecipherable data” and “a fraction of the financial documents to be produced.”
“Perhaps he felt that his overall litigation risks would be minimized by not complying with his disclosure requirements in this case,” Howell said. “Whatever the reason, the obligations are case-specific and withholding required disclosure in this case has consequences.”
The judge said, “Giuliani paid only lip service to complying with his disclosure obligations.”
Giuliani has attributed his failure to provide the requested documents to his devices being seized by federal investigations in 2021 as part of a separate Justice Department investigation that found no criminal charges.
Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Giuliani, said in a statement that the judge’s decision “is a prime example of the weapon of our justice system, where trial is punishment.” That decision should be reversed because Mayor Giuliani was wrong accused of failing to retain electronic evidence seized and held by the FBI.”
Last month, Giuliani acknowledged that in public comments he falsely claimed poll workers committed voter fraud in the 2020 election, but claimed the statements were protected under the First Amendment.
That caveat clause, Howell said, had “more loopholes than Swiss cheese,” suggesting that Giuliani was more interested in admitting the workers’ claims than actually making any meaningful discovery in the case.
“But just as bypassing shortcuts to win an election carries risks — even potential criminal liability — bypassing pre-trial investigation carries with it severe penalties, regardless of what reservations a noncompliant party artificially attempts to uphold in order to appeal.” , she said.
Moss has worked for the Fulton County Elections Department since 2012, overseeing absentee voting during the 2020 election. Freeman served as a temporary poll clerk, verifying signatures on absentee ballots and preparing them for counting and processing.
Giuliani and others claimed during a December 2020 hearing before the Georgia Legislative Subcommittee that surveillance footage from the State Farm Arena showed poll workers committed voter fraud.
As these allegations circulated online, they faced severe harassment both in person and online, the two women said. Moss described her experience in an emotional testimony before members of Congress investigating the Capitol riot. The January 6 committee also played video testimony from Freeman during the June 2022 hearing.
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