Rudolph W. Giuliani faces mounting legal woes stemming from false allegations and claims spearheaded in a nationwide public campaign to convince the public and the courts of massive voter fraud and a stolen 2020 presidential election.
“I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!” Donald J. Trump said in the tweet.
According to the Times, Trump was trying to use all possible means to change the election outcome and wanted those he views as “fighters” making his case to the public.
Trump refused to accept the results, instead pushing unfounded theories about widespread voter fraud and mail-in ballots and that the election has been stolen from him. His campaign filed a flurry of legal challenges, based on vague and unsupported allegations of fraud or using little evidence to lay out grievances about minor ballot processing access.
President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, argued to a federal judge in Pennsylvania that there had been “widespread national voter fraud” in the presidential election that led to Joe Biden’s projected victory.
But a lawyer for several Pennsylvania county election boards called Giuliani’s effort to have a judge invalidate up to 700,000 mail-in ballots cast in the state baseless and “disgraceful!”
Giuliani’s claims, which echoed those made by Trump, came at a hearing in Williamsport, where state lawyers argued to U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann for the dismissal of the Trump campaign’s lawsuit seeking to stop Pennsylvania from certifying its election results.
A Rusty Giuliani Returns to the Courtroom on Trump’s Behalf (Associated Press, November 18, 2020)
The former federal prosecutor and New York City mayor, who had taken over Trump’s efforts to cast doubt on the election results, entered a courthouse in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Over several hours, he fiddled with his Twitter account, forgot which judge he was talking to and threw around unsupported accusations about a nationwide conspiracy by Democrats to steal the election.
In the federal lawsuit, Trump’s campaign is seeking to block Pennsylvania from certifying its election results and suing seven Democratic counties in the state, alleging unspecified inconsistencies in how different counties counted their ballots. During Tuesday’s hearing before Judge Matthew Brann, Giuliani alleged that “big cities controlled by Democrats” were engaged in a vast election-rigging conspiracy that allowed 682,770 ballots to be counted illegally.
Giuliani took over as the main lawyer for the Trump campaign in the case after three other lawyers withdrew as counsel on Monday evening. On Tuesday, Giuliani said he determined that nearly 700,000 mail ballots were fraudulent by adding up ballots that were “cured” — a legal process where voters are allowed to fix technical issues with their ballots like a missing signature after casting them — in counties run by elected Democrats.
In a wild, tangent-filled and often contentious press briefing led by President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, the Trump campaign’s legal team laid out its case for widespread voter fraud in the election. The roughly 90-minute briefing was overflowing with falsehoods and conspiracy theories. At no point did Trump’s legal team offer any proof for their allegations of widespread fraud. Many of their specific claims had already been refuted by federal election security experts and a wide, bipartisan array of election administrators across the country.
Trump-appointed Judge Stephanos Bibas, who wrote the opinion for the three-judge panel, said the campaign’s arguments have no merit. Pennsylvania certified its election results last week, and the federal government’s General Services Administration has allowed for the formal transition process to take place.
“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” Bibas wrote in his opinion.
Specifically, the Trump campaign objected that Pennsylvania’s secretary of state and some counties restricted poll watchers and allowed voters to fix technical issues with mail-in ballots. Bibas rejected those claims.
Trump campaign attorneys Jenna Ellis and Rudy Giuliani reacted to the decision on Twitter: “The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud. We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature. On to SCOTUS!”
Earlier, Mr. Trump said “this election has to be turned around” and again falsely claimed he won Pennsylvania. The president made those remarks while calling into a meeting organized by Republicans in the state. On Thanksgiving Day, Mr. Trump said he would leave the White House if Mr. Biden won the Electoral College vote next month, but he seemed to walk that back in a tweet Friday.
“Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous ‘80,000,000 votes’ were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he’s got a big unsolvable problem!” the president said falsely in his tweet.
2021
President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani reportedly left a voicemail message for the wrong lawmaker late Wednesday as he was attempting to reach Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in an effort to stall Congress’s certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.
According to The Dispatch, Giuliani recorded a voicemail message addressed to Tuberville at approximately 7 p.m., saying that wanted to discuss how congressional leaders were “trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you.”
“And I know they’re reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow,” he added.
However, the president’s attorney left the message on the voicemail of another senator, whom the online conservative news outlet did not identify.
Lee’s office confirmed to CNN that the voicemail was intended for Tuberville and the message left from Giuliani was very similar to one that another unnamed GOP senator received. The transcript of that call was published by the conservative outlet The Dispatch
“Sen. Tuberville? Or I should say Coach Tuberville. This is Rudy Giuliani, the President’s lawyer,” he said according to the transcript.
“I’m calling you because I want to discuss with you how they’re trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you,” Giuliani said, referring to unfounded claims of voter fraud in the presidential election.
“I know they’re reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow – ideally until the end of tomorrow.”
Tuberville was unaware that Giuliani had tried to reach him until it was publicly reported, according to the source.
Giuliani in the Wednesday voicemail claimed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was “doing everything he can” to rush the vote, “which is kind of a kick in the head because it’s one thing to oppose us, it’s another thing not to give us a fair opportunity to contest it.”
“So, if you could object to every state and, along with a congressman, get a hearing for every state, I know we would delay you a lot, but it would give us the opportunity to get the legislators who are very, very close to pulling their vote, particularly after what McConnell did today. It angered them, because they have written letters asking that you guys adjourn and send them back the questionable ones and they’ll fix them up,” Giuliani continued, according to audio of the recording obtained by The Dispatch.
Congress’s certification of the Electoral College results were delayed Wednesday after a mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. President-elect Joe Biden’s win was later affirmed after the complex was secured.
“That’s insurrection against the United States of America and if Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump are not arrested today for insurrection and taken to jail and booked — and if the Capitol Hill police do not go through every video and look at the face of every person that invaded our Capitol and if they are not arrested and brought to justice today — then we are no longer a nation of laws and we only tell people they can do this again,” Scarborough said.
The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) strongly condemned the violent uprising that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, orchestrated by individuals bent on subverting the will of the voters by disrupting the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
Thankfully, Congress overcame this assault and fulfilled its constitutional responsibility in certifying the Biden-Harris victory. However, we must address the root cause of this abhorrent incident, the blame for which lies first and foremost with President Donald Trump.
But the president did not act alone. Hours before the angry mob stormed the Capitol walls, Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, addressed a crowd of thousands at the White House, reiterating baseless claims of widespread election fraud in the presidential election and the Georgia U.S. Senate runoffs.
“If we’re wrong, we will be made fools of, but if we’re right a lot of them will go to jail,” Mr. Giuliani said. “Let’s have trial by combat.”
NYSBA has received hundreds of complaints in recent months about Mr. Giuliani and his baseless efforts on behalf of President Trump to cast doubt on the veracity of the 2020 presidential election and, after the votes were cast, to overturn its legitimate results. As widely reported, these efforts included the commencement and prosecution of court actions in multiple states without any evidentiary basis whatsoever. In each and every instance, these actions were appropriately dismissed by the courts in which they were brought.
NYSBA’s bylaws state that “no person who advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States, or of any state, territory or possession thereof, or of any political subdivision therein, by force or other illegal means, shall be a member of the Association.” Mr. Giuliani’s words quite clearly were intended to encourage Trump supporters unhappy with the election’s outcome to take matters into their own hands. Their subsequent attack on the Capitol was nothing short of an attempted coup, intended to prevent the peaceful transition of power.
Mr. Giuliani will be provided due process and have an opportunity – should he so choose – to explain and defend his words and actions.
This decision is historic for NYSBA, and we have not made it lightly. We cannot stand idly by and allow those intent on rending the fabric of our democracy to go unchecked.
Vermont College Revokes Honorary Degree for Giuliani (Aris Folley, The Hill, January 12, 2021)
A college in Vermont announced that it is revoking an honorary degree it presented to Giuliani in the wake of the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol last week by a pro-Trump mob opposing the presidential election results.
Middlebury College confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that it had made the decision to revoke the degree it gave Giuliani in 2005. It also said it has “communicated this to Mr. Giuliani’s office.”
Drexel University Rescinds Honorary Degree Awarded to Rudy Giuliani
Drexel University has decided to rescind an honorary Doctor of Laws degree awarded by its law school in 2009 to presidential attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The totality of Mr. Giuliani’s recent actions, which have led to the suspension of his license to practice law, include repeated unfounded claims of widespread election fraud, have significantly contributed to undermining the public’s faith in our democratic institutions and in the integrity of our judicial system, and stand in clear opposition to Drexel’s values.
“I agree with the board’s decision,” URI President Marc Parlange said. “Based on the findings of the honorary degree committee, I made a recommendation to the Board of Trustees to revoke the honorary degrees of General Flynn and Mayor Giuliani, agreeing that they no longer represent the highest level of our values and standards that were evident when we first bestowed the degree.”
President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani personally voted in the 2020 election using a voting method he publicly disparaged and bashed in his attempts to overthrow the presidential election results, a CNN KFile investigation has found.
Dominion Voting Systems is seeking more than $1.3 billion in damages.
“Just as Giuliani and his allies intended, the Big Lie went viral on social media as people tweeted, retweeted, and raged that Dominion had stolen their votes. While some lies – little lies – flare up on social media and die with the next news cycle, the Big Lie was different,” lawyers for Dominion wrote in the lawsuit, filed in DC District Court on Monday morning. “The harm to Dominion’s business and reputation is unprecedented and irreparable because of how fervently millions of people believe it.”
“Dominion’s defamation lawsuit for $1.3B will allow me to investigate their history, finances, and practices fully and completely,” Giuliani told CNN in a statement Monday. “The amount being asked for is, quite obviously, intended to frighten people of faint heart. It is another act of intimidation by the hate-filled left-wing to wipe out and censor the exercise of free speech, as well as the ability of lawyers to defend their clients vigorously.”
He said he will “investigate a countersuit against them for violating these Constitutional rights.”
In the lawsuit Monday, the company focused on how Giuliani continued to claim without evidence that Dominion aided election fraud even after he received a cease-and-desist letter. The Canadian-founded company details how listeners of Giuliani reacted by amplifying online his message of a stolen election. The former mayor of New York and well-known prosecutor repeated his claims on podcasts and his radio show and YouTube shows. He also used his platform in recent months to make money pitching cigars, a conservative alternative to the AARP and the sale of gold coins, the lawsuit says.
Giuliani also appeared on TV networks OANN, Fox and Fox Business to make accusations of election fraud, the lawsuit notes.
Dominion also details how on January 6 – hours before a crowd of Trump supporters in Washington violently overran the Capitol – Giuliani continued to push claims of election fraud about Dominion in tweets, on a YouTube appearance and in his own speech at the event. Giuliani said at the rally, without evidence, that he knew of an expert who had examined Dominion voting machines and saw changed votes, concluding, “This election was stolen,” according to the complaint.
Dominion sent Giuliani a second letter, asking for a retraction on January 10, the company says.
“Giuliani has not retracted his false claims about Dominion, and many of his false and defamatory television and radio appearances and tweets remain available online to a global internet audience. Indeed, to this day, he continues to double down on the Big Lie,” the lawsuit noted.
Dominion said it is now distrusted by millions of American voters and its employees have been harassed. The company believes hundreds of its contracts with states and localities are now in jeopardy and that the business projects a loss of profits in the next five years of $200 million, according to the lawsuit.
Lawyers Want Giuliani Investigated, License Suspended (Associated Press, January 22, 2021)
A lawyers’ group filed an ethics complaint against Rudy Giuliani with New York’s courts, calling for him to be investigated and his law license suspended over his work promoting former President Donald Trump’s false allegations over the 2020 election.
Lawyers Defending American Democracy, which includes former judges and federal attorneys among its members, sent the complaint on Wednesday to the Attorney Grievance Committee of the state’s court system saying Giuliani had violated the rules of professional conduct.
“Giuliani has spearheaded a nationwide public campaign to convince the public and the courts of massive voter fraud and a stolen presidential election,” the complaint said.
Robert Costello, an attorney for Giuliani, said seven federal agents came to Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment and additional agents served a warrant on Giuliani’s Park Avenue office where they seized devices including a computer belonging to his assistant, Jo Ann Zafonte.
One attorney who worked with Giuliani on the attempt to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss said Wednesday that the search of the President’s lawyer may have swept up privileged legal communications about the President’s campaign from November and December 2020 and January 2021.
Giuliani is also facing other legal exposure for his role in the 2020 election. The election technology company Dominon sued Giuliani in January for defamation after he spread baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud on his podcast and during TV appearances. In the lawsuit, the company focused on how Giuliani continued to claim without evidence that Dominion aided election fraud even after he received a cease-and-desist letter. Guiliani said at the time he would “investigate a countersuit against” Dominion.
Guiliani is also likely to face scrutiny from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is investigating Trump’s efforts to influence Georgia’s election results. While the crux of Willis’ investigation is Trump’s efforts to meddle in the state’s election, she is also examining Trump allies who may have assisted him in those efforts. One area Willis is exploring: whether Giuliani may have violated the law by making false statements about voting in Georgia in front of the state legislature.
Media gather in front of Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment after federal investigators executed a search warrant on April 28, 2021 (Photo: Tayfun Coskun—Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Giuliani’s New York Law License Suspended Over False Trump Election Claims (Reuters, June 24, 2021)
Rudy Giuliani’s New York law license was suspended on Thursday, after a state appeals court found he had lied in arguing that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from his client, former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Giuliani, 77, a former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and New York City mayor, was punished for making “demonstrably false and misleading” statements that widespread voter fraud undermined the election, which Democrat Joe Biden won.
Rudy Giuliani Suspended From Practicing Law in Washington, DC (CNN Politics, July 7, 2021)
Giuliani is currently struggling under a mountain of legal fees as he attempts to fend off a major federal investigation and answer a $1.3 billion lawsuit. Trump, meanwhile, isn’t pitching in a dime of the millions he has raised in his ongoing battle against a legitimate election, according to New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman.
Giuliani’s supporters are “aghast” that Trump isn’t helping out, according to Haberman, given that many of his activities were carried out on Trump’s behalf to push the former president’s “Big Lie” of a rigged election.
But helping Giuliani is “problematic” for the former president (and definitely for his bank account), and Giuliani should have known better than to undertake some of his activities, sources told Haberman.
2022
January 6 Committee Subpoenas Giuliani and 3 Others (CNN, January 19, 2022)
The subpoenas mark a significant escalation in the sweeping probe as the committee is now seeking to compel cooperation from those at the heart of Trump’s push to overturn the election predicated on the lie that it was stolen. The panel has an entire investigative team dedicated to examining efforts by Trump and his allies to pressure Department of Justice officials, as well as those at the state level, to overturn the results of the election.
Giuliani Meets with January 6 Committee for More than 9 Hours (CNN, May 20, 2022)
Ethics Charges for Baseless Claims of Election Fraud
On June 10, 2022, the DC Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel filed charges with the DC Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility against Giuliani. The ethics charges say that Giuliani’s federal court filings regarding the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania contained baseless claims in favor of Trump.
On December 15, 2022, after a week-long hearing, the D.C. Bar Disciplinary Counsel recommended Giuliani be disbarred for violating rules of professional conduct by making false election fraud claims and trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Pennsylvania. The counsel’s decision is preliminary and non-binding. On July 7, 2023, an ad hoc hearing committee of the Board on Professional Responsibility recommended that he be disbarred.
“We’ve got lots of theories. We just don’t have the evidence.” The Republican speaker of the Arizona house, Rusty Bowers, told the January 6 committee, “I don’t know if that was a gaffe. Or maybe he didn’t think through what he said. But both myself and … my counsel remember that specifically.”
Bowers described harassment he and his family suffered. Another witness, Shaye Moss, a former Georgia elections worker, described threats and harassment dealt to her, her mother and her grandmother.
Jurors are seemingly interested in a call that Giuliani placed to Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, in late 2020. A major focus has also become the appointment of the slate of “alternate” Trump electors, which Giuliani reportedly helped quarterback for the Trump campaign.
2023
A New York appeals court reinstated two claims in Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani over the lawyer’s false claims that the election technology company rigged the 2020 election.
Smartmatic first filed its lawsuit in February 2021 against the conservative media network; its hosts Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and Lou Dobbs; and Trump lawyers Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The lawsuit alleged Giuliani and Powell pushed a false theory that Smartmatic had flipped votes from then-President Trump to now-President Biden, and Fox News either egged them on or failed to sufficiently challenge those claims.
On May 15, 2023, Noelle Dunphy, a former off-the-books employee of Giuliani, filed a civil lawsuit against him. She accused Giuliani of sexual assault, wage theft and unlawful abuse of power. Dunphy claimed that sexually satisfying Giuliani was an “absolute requirement” of her job; the complaint also said that Giuliani “often made outrageous comments that created and added to the hostile work environment that Ms. Dunphy was forced to endure,” and that he was constantly under the effects of alcohol. The lawsuit further alleges Giuliani complained about “‘freakin Arabs’ and Jews,” and “implied that [Jewish men’s] penises were inferior due to ‘natural selection.'” The lawsuit also alleges that Giuliani and Trump sold pardons for $2 million apiece.
In her 2023 memoir, Enough, Cassidy Hutchinson alleges that Giuliani groped her backstage during Donald Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021.
Fulton Grand Jury Subpoenas Giuliani (Tamar Hallerman, Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 5, 2023)
The Fulton County special grand jury investigating potential criminal interference in Georgia’s 2020 elections has subpoenaed key members of former President Donald Trump’s legal team, including his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
“This is nothing more than a circus that’s being put on by those who promote the ’big lie’ that Trump won the election,” Fulton Commission Chairman Robb Pitts said. “Where does it end? The votes have been counted. The elections have been certified. It’s over.”
Giuliani was sanctioned in June and forced to pay attorneys fees in the ongoing defamation case brought by Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, who became the subject of election fraud conspiracy theories pushed by Giuliani and others on the far right in the aftermath of the election and first sued the attorney in 2021.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office said in June it had completed an investigation into the election fraud allegations involving Freeman and Moss, finding they were “false and unsubstantiated.” “All allegations made against [the two election workers] were unsubstantiated and found to have no merit,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger concluded.
When Rudy Giuliani spread conspiracy theories about the election before a state legislative hearing in December 2020, it drew a ringing condemnation from Gov. Brian Kemp, who called the former New York mayor’s attacks a “joke.”
Giuliani’s claims were quickly debunked by the Secretary of State’s office, but he doubled down on his comments.
When he was working as a federal prosecutor in New York in the 1980s, Rudy Giuliani was hailed for his innovative use of racketeering laws against the mob.
Now he faces a similar charge — a violation of Georgia’s RICO (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act — for allegedly taking part in a conspiracy with then-President Donald Trump and others in a bid to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
The charge carries a minimum five-year prison sentence and a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Giuliani is accused of being at the center of the scheme and helping Trump push lies about the 2020 election. He is charged with 13 criminal counts, accused of soliciting public officials to violate their oaths of office, and making false statements, including one falsely accusing Black election workers of fraud.
“I’m indicted for being his (Trump) lawyer. I never thought I’d get indicted for being a lawyer,” he said. “I thought I was protected by the fact that I was defending him. I’m supposed to argue in his favor.”
“The Defendants, as well as others not named as defendants, unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere,” the indictment says.
A 23-member grand jury disagreed. Giuliani — who is currently at risk of disbarment in New York and Washington, D.C. — was one of 19 people charged in a sprawling, 98-page indictment that detailed an alleged attempt to undermine the will of American voters.
Giuliani is charged with 13 felony counts, including racketeering (violating the Georgia RICO Act) and false statements and writings.
Rudy Giuliani Went to Mar-A-Lago on a Humiliating Mission (Huffington Post, August 17, 2023)
He arrived around 8:30 a.m., accompanied by his lawyer, Robert J. Costello, and former GOP gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones. Giuliani left the Fulton County courthouse through a private exit shortly after 3 p.m. with a sheriff’s escort.
Vernon Jones, the former gubernatorial candidate, said Wednesday that Giuliani was in good spirits on the way to the courthouse and not nervous about providing testimony.
“Actually, we were having so much fun talking and just sharing stories of when he’s visited Georgia. He loves the people here and talked about the apple pie… he loves Waffle House, how green it is here in Georgia,” Jones said of his friend.
When asked about how he got to Georgia after his lawyers filed a doctor’s note to McBurney saying he couldn’t fly, Giuliani replied: “I’ll give you one answer: I didn’t walk.”
He is charged with violating the State’s RICO Act, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, conspiracy to commit filing false documents, two counts each of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, three counts each of false statements and writings, solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer.
Rudy Giuliani’s Mug Shot Released in Georgia Election Meddling Case (People, August 23, 2023)
A federal judge ruled that Rudy Giuliani is liable in a defamation lawsuit brought by two former Fulton County election workers.
In her 57-page order, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell issued a default judgment against the former New York City mayor. This means that all that remains is for a jury to decide whether Giuliani should pay damages and, if so, how much.
Howell cited Giuliani’s “willful” refusal to turn over documents that could have shed light on whether he knowingly made false and defamatory statements about the two women. And she ordered Giuliani and his companies to pay a combined $132,857 in attorneys fees — at a time when he is already having difficulty paying his legal bills.
The ruling affirms a claim that Giuliani defamed election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss when he accused them of committing fraud during the 2020 presidential election. The case now heads to trial by early 2024 solely to determine whether Giuliani must pay damages for spreading the false claims.
Freeman and Moss counted ballots at State Farm Arena on election night in November 2020. A few weeks later, Giuliani — acting as Trump’s attorney — unveiled snippets of surveillance video of that counting at a legislative hearing in Atlanta. He said the video was a “smoking gun” that proved election fraud.
It was not. State and federal investigators reviewed the entire video and interviewed the workers and numerous witnesses. They concluded the video showed only normal ballot counting and the workers did nothing wrong.
But Giuliani and Trump continued to spread false claims about Freeman and Moss by name.
“Nothing can restore all we lost, but today’s ruling is yet another neutral finding that has confirmed what we have known all along: that there was never any truth to any of the accusations about us and that we did nothing wrong,” they said. “We were smeared for purely political reasons, and the people responsible can and should be held accountable.”
The law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron said Giuliani had only paid $214,000 of his total legal bill, leaving him $1,360,196 indebted to them for work the firm’s attorneys did on his now-closed foreign lobbying federal criminal investigation; the January 6, 2021-related investigations by Georgia state prosecutors, the House of Representatives and the federal special counsel’s office; and in various lawsuits and attorney discipline probes that materialized after the 2020 election, according to a complaint filed in New York state court on Monday.
Giuliani has publicly said in court how he is struggling to pay for mounting legal fees and adverse court decisions.
Rudy Giuliani has failed to pay more than $132,000 in sanctions he faces for failing to respond to parts of a lawsuit from two Georgia election workers, according to a court filing.
In addition, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on Friday ordered the former New York mayor to pay an additional $104,000 to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother and daughter he defamed, for additional legal fees they’ve incurred because of his failure to respond to parts of their lawsuit.
This is the latest difficulty for Giuliani as he faces fallout from his work for Donald Trump after the 2020 election.
The bill of $132,856 is only a small chunk of the financial burden Giuliani is currently under, largely because of his ongoing legal troubles, and it’s one he’s known of for several weeks.
But a court filing confirmed Giuliani has not paid the amount to Moss and Freeman, which a judge ordered to offset some of their attorneys’ fees.
“As of the date of this filing, Defendant Giuliani has failed to take any of the actions, or to cause the Giuliani Businesses to take any of the actions, so-ordered in the Sanctions Order,” Moss and Freeman’s lawyers wrote on Thursday, according to the filing. “Plaintiffs are considering what further relief may be appropriate.”
Giuliani’s failure to respond to subpoenas for records in Moss and Freeman’s lawsuit led to the sanctioned amount, which is now accruing interest as he continues to not pay. Yet it isn’t the end of the bills for Giuliani in the case. He will face a damages trial in the case before a jury in December.
Just days ago, he also faced a new lawsuit from his former attorney for $1.3 million in unpaid legal fees, and other lawsuits against him are ongoing.
The latest lawsuit also adds to mounting legal woes for Rudy Giuliani, who is facing multiple civil and criminal actions stemming from his actions after the 2020 election.
One of the most prominent defendants in the Fulton County election probe is beset by a slew of legal problems and is struggling to pay attorneys or even comply with a judge’s orders.
Last week, the judge ruled Giuliani had again failed to comply with a recent order to produce documents and pay the attorneys’ fees. She has directed the plaintiffs to submit a request for additional sanctions. In addition to any sanctions, Giuliani could owe damages to be determined at an upcoming trial.
In July, he put his Upper East Side apartment on the market for $6.5 million. His lawyer, Adam Katz, said that Giuliani was “close to broke,” according to the New York Times.
Kim Frye, a Marietta defense attorney, said the multiplying legal problems and money woes do not bode well for Giuliani.
“He can’t defend himself in all those arenas and still pay his legal bills,” Frye said. “That’s really where he’s struggling.”
In a five-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said the move was necessary given “Giuliani’s continued and flagrant disregard of this Court’s August 30 Order that he produce financial-related documents concerning his personal and his businesses’ past and present assets” and other pertinent information.
That means jurors deciding how much Giuliani should pay two Georgia election workers he defamed will be told they can assume the worst about why the former New York City mayor has failed to turn over the court-ordered records.
“The jury will be instructed that it must, when determining an appropriate sum of compensatory, presumed, and punitive damages, infer that defendant Giuliani was intentionally trying to hide relevant discovery about the Giuliani Businesses’ finances for the purpose of shielding his assets from discovery and artificially deflating his net worth,” the judge wrote.
Additionally, Giuliani and his lawyer will be prohibited “from making any argument, or introducing any evidence, stating or suggesting that he is insolvent, bankrupt, judgment proof, or otherwise unable to defend himself” since he failed to hand over evidence that would show that’s true, the judge wrote.
In October 2023, Giuliani filed a defamation lawsuit in New Hampshire against President Joe Biden for referring to him as a “Russian pawn” during a 2020 presidential debate. Giuliani alleged that Biden’s comments were false and that he had been personally harmed by them.
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers who have been tormented by harassment and threats since 2020, were prepared Tuesday to confront the man they view as the chief instigator of their suffering: Rudy Giuliani.
But Giuliani was a no-show at a federal court hearing in the duo’s defamation lawsuit, prompting a lashing for his attorney by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who had ordered Giuliani to be present.
“Long after the charged conduct, the defendant continued to falsely attack two Georgia election workers despite being on notice that his claims about them in 2020 were false and had subjected them to vile, racist, and violent threats and harassment,” senior assistant special counsel Molly Gaston wrote in a nine-page court filing.
“In apparent response, the defendant then doubled down and recommenced his attacks on the election workers in posts on Truth Social,” Gaston wrote. “He even zeroed in on one of the election workers, falsely writing that she was an election fraudster, a liar, and one of the ‘treacher[ous] … monsters’ who stole the country, and that she would be in legal trouble.”
The election workers’ case is the latest effort to hold public figures accountable in court for pushing conspiracy theories.
Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor, said the election workers’ attorneys can continue pursuing legal avenues to identify Giuliani’s assets — and he predicts they will be “tenacious” about it.
“This kind of judgment is not wiped out by bankruptcy. So, they’re entitled to continue looking and to take depositions and discovery,” he said on MSNBC, noting that Giuliani’s refusal to comply with discovery requirements in the first half of the trial was what landed him in this mess.
The infamous press conference Giuliani hosted for Trump in the parking lot of a landscaping business in the days following the 2020 vote.
The stunning verdict adds to an already-long list of legal and financial woes for the former New York City mayor.
Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis calls election workers awarded $148M in Giuliani lawsuit ‘beautiful human beings’ (Atlanta First News Staff, December 21, 2023)
Willis said “it’s evident that some of the facts are the same” in the criminal case against Giuliani, where he is charged with seeking to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia alongside former President Donald Trump. Giuliani had falsely claimed Freeman and Moss helped rig the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
It comes a day after the federal judge who oversaw the blockbuster defamation case said the two plaintiffs – Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss – can begin trying to collect from Giuliani immediately.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said in her order Wednesday that Giuliani had escaped revealing his worth by refusing to turn over evidence he had in the case before trial, never acknowledged previous court orders for him to reimburse the women for his attorneys’ fee and repeatedly claimed he’s broke and the verdict would severely hurt him.
According to the filing, Giuliani listed debts between $100 million and $500 million, and assets worth up to $10 million.
Giuliani lists nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes among his liabilities as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to lawyers and accountants.
He also lists pending lawsuits, including three defamation cases over his statements after the 2020 election that haven’t yet gone to trial and could add to his debt if he’s ordered to pay damages in those cases.
But part of the final judgment in the 2020 election defamation case against Giuliani included his acknowledgement that he defamed them with malice, which will make it harder for him to escape his debt to them.
In the meantime, Moss and Freeman’s lawyers have indicated they would move quickly to ask for liens on Giuliani’s existing properties in New York and Florida and researching entities that may be providing money to him, such as Newsmax, where he has a show.
The bankruptcy filing doesn’t list his assets, but it estimates them to be worth between $1 million and $10 million. Business Insider previously reported that Giuliani has listed a New York City apartment for sale at a $6.5 million asking price, but has studiously avoided disclosing any details about his finances in several ongoing court battles.
The liabilities also include potentially hundreds of millions more to other people and companies that have sued him, including Hunter Biden (alleged hacking of his laptop), Noelle Dunphy (alleged sexual assault), Daniel Gill (allegedly lying to police to get him arrested), Smartmatic (alleged defamation for election conspiracy theories), Dominion (also alleged defamation for election conspiracy theories), and former Dominion executive Eric Coomer (alleged defamation for — you guessed it — election conspiracy theories).
Because defamation is an “intentional tort” — meaning Giuliani broke civil laws on purpose — he can’t jettison the $148 million judgment through the bankruptcy process, according to Eric Snyder, the chairman of the bankruptcy practice at Wilk Auslander LLP.
The bankruptcy also won’t stop the criminal prosecution against Giuliani, in Fulton County, over his role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. That case puts Giuliani in a bind, since he may be hesitant to disclose all of his personal information in the bankruptcy case out of worry that the Atlanta prosecutors will use it against him.
Giuliani and Trump made the allegations the centerpiece of a media campaign designed to pressure Georgia officials to overturn Biden’s victory. They detailed that campaign in a “strategic communication plan” that spelled out how they would spread the allegations across social media, conservative media outlets, podcasts, local TV and other media.
The mainstream media has labeled it “The Big Lie,” but the facts on the ground tell a very different story. While politicians on both sides of the aisle scramble to stifle all investigations into election fraud, and the mainstream media pumps out “nothing to see here” stories, investigative reporter Christina Bobb reveals the ugly truth: the 2020 election was riddled with lying, cheating, stealing, and vote dumping which disenfranchised millions of Americans and probably swayed the outcome of the election. As usual, the cover-up was even worse than the crime, as politicians, media and activists launched an all-out assault on facts and evidence, doing everything in their power to bury the truth and slander anyone who dared ask the inconvenient questions.
Stealing Your Vote tells the story of corruption within the Democratic Party—but also reveals the cowardice throughout the Republican Party, as fat and happy politicians from both parties desperately worked to protect the status quo. Bobb also tells the story of a handful of brave patriots who tried, and continue trying, to find out just what happened in 2020.
As we look forward to 2024, we face an unprecedented crisis: millions of Americans have now lost faith in the integrity of our elections. The country has become ever-more polarized, pitting those who believe the election was stolen versus those who are determined to cancel both the investigations and the doubters. But election integrity should not be a partisan issue. Fair and honest elections are the bedrock of our republic—while tainted elections are the hallmark of tyranny. If we fail to regain election integrity and the trust of the American people, all of us, Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, are doomed to a dark future.
Christina Bobb’s Stealing Your Vote is the first and only investigative report into what truly happened in the 2020 elections and the cover-up that followed, and what we must do now as our next presidential election approaches.
Georgia Election Workers Defamation Lawsuit & Trial. How Two Georgia Election Poll Workers Brought a Defamation Lawsuit Against Former NYC D.A. and Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Won Big!
Rudy Giuliani’s Election Fraud Allegations and Ensuing Lawsuits
Timeline of Events Leading to Rudy Giuliani’s Legal Troubles