A federal judge has ruled that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani defamed election workers in Georgia, ordering him to pay tens of thousands of dollars in lawyers fees.
The case stemmed from Giuliani’s testimony in front of the Georgia Senate in which he said that election workers had counted “suitcases” of illegal ballots in the middle of the night at the counting location at State Farm Arena. He showed a video that he called the “smoking gun” that he said proved his claims that the results of the 2020 presidential election were fraudulent, WSB reported.
“The video makes it clear,” Giuliani told WSB the day after his testimony. “They took ballots from under a table and counted them in the middle of the night. This is what they were doing all throughout the country. Luckily, there is now a tape of it.”
The two women received death threats after Giuliani’s claims and had to leave their home.
Wandrea’ ArShaye Moss and Ruby Freeman said that Giuliani who was former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney at the time, defamed them with the claims he had made, The Associated Press reported.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found Giuliani liable for defamation and issued the financial penalty because Giuliani refused to give information requested by Freeman and her daughter Moss as part of their lawsuit against him.
The actual amount Giuliani will have to pay has not been set. That will be determined during a trial in federal court in Washington that will set the amount of damages. He will still have a “final opportunity” to produce the information or face more sanctions, the AP reported.
Giuliani’s political advisor, Ted Goodman, released a statement to WSB following the ruling on Wednesday, saying:
“This 57-page opinion on discovery—which would usually be no more than two or three pages—is a prime example of the weaponization of the justice system, where the process is the punishment. This decision should be reversed, as Mayor Giuliani is wrongly accused of not preserving electronic evidence that was seized and held by the FBI.”
The opinion is embedded below or can be read here.
Earlier this year, the Georgia state election boards found no evidence of fraud during the counting of the 2020 ballots at the arena collection site, WSB reported.
©2023 Cox Media Group
