A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani is responsible for damages for defaming Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, two former Georgia election workers who are suing him for his erroneous claims that they committed fraud during the 2020 election. He did this by failing to comply with his discovery obligations.
The amount of damages will be decided in a civil trial.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell concluded in a lengthy judgment that Giuliani had violated his discovery responsibilities and prevented plaintiffs Ruby Freeman & Wandrea ArShaye Moss from obtaining any substantive discovery in this case.
No matter what misgivings a non-compliant party may try to artificially maintain for an appeal, she continued, “bypassing the discovery process entails serious sanctions, just as taking shortcuts to win an election carries risks, even potential criminal liability.”
Giuliani’s political advisor Ted Goodman claimed that his client had been “wrongly accused.”
“This 57-page opinion on discovery, which would typically be no more than two or three pages, is an outstanding instance of the weaponization of the legal system, where the procedure is the punishment,” the author stated in a statement. “This decision should be overturned because Mayor Giuliani is falsely charged with failing to preserve electronic evidence that the FBI had seized and held,”
Giuliani acknowledged making “false” claims about Freeman and Moss in a court document last month.
Giuliani stated in a signed stipulation that it was meant to “avoid unnecessary expenses in arguing what he believes to be unnecessary disputes” and that he “does not contest that, to the level the statements were statements of fact and otherwise actionable, such practical factual statements were false.”
Freeman and Moss have alleged that the allegations of electoral fraud made by conspiracy theorists, as well as those made by then-President Donald Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani, completely upended their lives. As purported proof, a heavily altered, brief bit of surveillance footage was widely disseminated online and by Trump allies.
According to Giuliani, Freeman and Moss were “passing around USB ports like they were carrying vials of heroin or cocaine.” They were really passing a ginger mint, as the committee report from January 6 attests.
Freeman and Moss said in a statement in response to the decision on Wednesday that what they experienced after the 2020 election was a “living nightmare,” but that the decision brings them “one step closer” to reconstructing their lives.
They claimed that Rudy Giuliani “helped unleash a wave of animosity and threats we hardly could have imagined.” “Our sense of security and our ability to live our lives as we pleased were both lost. Nothing can make up for what we’ve lost, but today’s decision is another impartial conclusion that supports what we always knew to be true: that we did nothing wrong and that none of the claims against us were true.
“We were slandered for purely political reasons, and the perpetrators can and should be held accountable,” they continued. We have maintained our faith throughout all of this, confident in the truth that faith is the foundation of things hoped for and the proof of things unseen. But faith devoid of deeds is lifeless. Because of this, in 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2023, we didn’t just lay down and disappear; we stood up and kept fighting for justice. The struggle to mend our lives’ harm and repair our reputations is far from over. But today brings us closer, and we are appreciative of that.
Trump, Giuliani, and prominent supporters, including Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff, were indicted early this month on felony charges related to conspiracy to rig the Georgia 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani turned himself into Georgian police last week to face racketeering accusations that he interfered in the state’s 2020 presidential election. Giuliani supported Trump’s absurd claims of election fraud. He is accused of playing a significant role in a criminal conspiracy, pressuring election officials to take action in response to allegations of voting fraud that he was repeatedly told were untrue.
Giuliani was arrested last week on the accusations, and he and the other co-defendants will be arraigned on September 6. He has consistently denied doing anything improper.