The legal plight of Rudy Giuliani continues to intensify as he faces a myriad of lawsuits, each amplifying the intensity of his legal woes. Among these are defamation suits by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, a computer hacking suit by Hunter Biden, and a collections action by his former lawyer Robert Costello.
However, perhaps his most pressing issue is the defamation suit brought against him by Atlanta poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The pair faced years of harassment and threats after Giuliani, who was acting as the former president’s lawyer, falsely accused them of counting thousands of fraudulent ballots in favour of Joe Biden in the 2020 elections. Giuliani, after years of evading discovery and accruing a default judgment, seems to have resorted to a new legal strategy: surrender.
In her August 30 order, Judge Beryl Howell once again offered Giuliani what she referred to as the ‘final opportunity’ to comply with discovery that is essential for the determination of damages, or face further sanctions. The judge required from Giuliani the structure of ownership and viewer metrics for his podcast, information about his personal finances, and roughly $143,000 in attorney’s fees to compensate the plaintiffs for their efforts in trying to obtain that information.
Despite the court’s dual approach of punishment and reward, if Giuliani failed to produce the missing discovery by September 20, he was to face an even more severe sanction from the jury. Predictably, Giuliani chose the latter option, resulting in the plaintiffs informing the court on September 29 that they had received no productions or payments from the defendant.
The court ruled out the second request by the plaintiffs, made for fear of Giuliani dissipating his assets, asserting that there was no provision under federal rules to permit a pre-judgment ‘final judgment’ that would allow the plaintiffs to collect before the trial. However, the court agreed with the plaintiffs on the first count, going ahead with the instruction to the jury that Giuliani had intentionally tried to hide relevant discovery about his businesses and his video podcast viewership to shield his assets from discovery and downplay his net worth and the impact of his defamatory statements.
These recent developments in the courtroom clearly suggest that Giuliani’s legal situation is looking quite disparate. Especially the fact that Giuliani was given a trial without the right to defend himself due to his failure to cooperate with discovery, is a serious concern for the seasoned politician.
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