Rudy Giuliani talks to reporters before the Republican National Convention, on July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee (AP Photo/Paul Sancya).
Attorneys for two Georgia election workers are seeking to hold Rudy Giuliani in civil contempt, claiming he is continuing to repeat the same false statements about the duo rigging the 2020 election that resulted in a $148 million defamation judgment against the former New York City mayor.
The motion, filed Wednesday morning in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., comes after Giuliani last week made several pleas for public donations, saying he couldn’t afford to feed himself as a result of debt he owes to Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss.
According to the filing, Giuliani’s defamatory campaign against Freeman and Moss continued even after they were awarded the astronomical judgment and Giuliani was forced to declare bankruptcy. To curb Giuliani’s behavior and prevent additional legal action, he eventually consented to a permanent injunction prohibiting him from making any additional claims that Freeman or Moss had “engaged in wrong-doing in connection with the 2020 presidential election.”
But the former U.S. Attorney is now “brazenly violating that consent injunction,” according to plaintiffs’ attorney. According to the filing (emphasis in original):
In two recent broadcasts of his nightly show, Mr. Giuliani claimed—unambiguously referring to Plaintiffs—that “they never let me show the tapes that show them quadruple counting the the the ballots,” that his tapes showed Plaintiffs “passing these little uh little hard drives that we maintain were used to fix the machines right and they say it was candy. Well you look at it looks like a hard drive to me and they told me it was a hard drive and there’s no proof that it was candy,” and that “you can see if you want uh in living color her quadruple counting votes and the people uh thrown out of the Arena.” These statements repeat the exact same lies for which Mr. Giuliani has already been held liable, and which he agreed to be bound by court order to stop repeating. They constitute unambiguous violations of the Consent Injunction.
Giuliani’s latest statements about Moss and Freeman “merely regurgitate the exact same lies that Giuliani has been spreading for years” which he explicitly agreed not to repeat, the motion says. Evidence that he violated the court’s injunction is “not just ‘clear and convincing,’ it is overwhelming,” they plaintiffs’ attorney wrote.
Moss and Freeman asked the court to impose civil contempt sanctions — a monetary fine — on Giuliani that are “calibrated to coerce compliance” with the injunction. The duo requested that a hearing be scheduled to “determine the appropriate contempt sanction,” saying they will be prepared to present evidence relating to Giuliani’s financial condition and “evidence of judgment-proof assets that has emerged since the Court last confronted this case.”
Giuliani’s widespread legal troubles have only worsened of late. After a federal judge in New York earlier this month shredded the former personal attorney to Donald Trump for his “ridiculous” efforts to keep valuable personal property owed to Freeman and Moss, Giuliani’s attorneys quit without telling him. He has since hired a new attorney in the bankruptcy enforcement case.
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