In a recent development, Judge Beryl Howell denied Rudy Giuliani’s bid to evade jury trial in the defamation case brought by Atlanta poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
Just days before the trial, Giuliani announced he preferred not to go before a jury but desired a bench trial. His request has now been denied by Judge Howell, who called him out for another attempt to sidetrack the defamation suit.
The defamation claim revolves around Giuliani’s false assertion that the defendants processed thousands of fraudulent ballots on the evening of the election. This resulted in Freeman and Moss encountering a year of threats and harassment, leading to their lawsuit against Giuliani and One America News’ parent company in December of 2021.
While OAN settled quickly, Giuliani took more than a year to respond to the proceedings, as Judge Howell observed. By August 2023, due to repeated violations of the “basic preservation and production duties,” Judge Howell paid Giuliani back with a default judgment, alongside warning of numerous negative jury instructions ahead if he continued to behave similarly. Nonetheless, Giuliani didn’t change his ways, inviting more sanctions.
During jury instructions negotiations on November 20, with voir dire scheduled for December 11, Giuliani filed a two-page “trial brief”, asserting there’s no right to a jury trial in default cases. The plaintiffs were accordingly taken aback at the possibility of Giuliani stripping them of their Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.
Hence, Judge Howell has concluded that no party has the absolute right for either a jury or bench trial in cases of default, and it is completely under the court’s purview.
Consequently, next week Rudy will appear before a jury in Washington, D.C. The complete Freeman vs. Herring Networks docket information can be viewed via Court Listener.