In a shift of events, Rudy Giuliani is now unlikely to secure capital punishment in the Fulton County, Georgia RICO case. However, Giuliani did accrue “death penalty sanctions” in his defamation lawsuit brought by election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The workers filed their charges last year against Giuliani and the One America News Network suspecting them of spreading harmful misinformation about their work on the vote count in Atlanta. One America News Network reconciled six months later, leaving Giuliani as the only defendant.
Over the course of an entire year, Giuliani kept dodging compliance with discovery, attributing his non-compliance to the seizure of his electronic devices by the FBI in April 2022. In July of this year, he resorted to making a baffling stipulation to avoid discovery – asserting that the allegedly defamatory statements were indeed false. However, upon further investigation by the court, he posed an equally perplexing “superseding nolo contendre.”
In light of his consistent evasiveness, Judge Beryl Howell today issued a damning opinion delivering a default judgment against the defendant. Citing Giuliani’s stipulations as full of loopholes, she criticised him for attempting to manipulate the courts just as he tried to manipulate the electoral system.
Giuliani’s preservation practices were also deemed lackluster. The court went further, accusing him of projecting himself as the victim and suggesting he had purposefully decided not to comply with discovery proceedings to avoid producing incriminating evidence that could further implicate him in the pending January 6 investigations.
In conclusion, the court found default liability for the defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, and even punitive damage claims filed by the plaintiffs. To add to Giuliani’s mounting legal woes, Judge Howell warned of further sanctions, including the possibility of him becoming personally liable for the debts of his businesses and paying approximately $143,000 of the plaintiffs’ attorney fees, if he does not disclose information about his finances.
For more detailed insight into this case, refer to the full report.