Rudy Giuliani still defaming election workers even after he was ordered to pay $148M judgment: lawyers
Former Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani can’t stop defaming two Georgia election workers he already owes a whopping $148 million, their legal team claims in a letter to a federal judge.
Attorneys for the election workers who sued Giuliani are now asking that the embattled former mayor of New York City be held in contempt of court — which could lead to even more fines and even jail time.
Giuliani is “brazenly violating” an agreement he consented to this year stating he would stop repeating the defamatory claims that the election workers were involved in fraud during the 2020 presidential election, the attorneys said in a letter filed early Wednesday.
The letter urges the judge to find Giuliani in contempt of court for statements he made after this year’s elections, which could mean a range of penalties from fines to possible jail time, and cites multiple examples of the disgraced mayor repeating his defamatory comments.
“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,” states the letter, written by Michael J. Gottlieb of Willke Farr & Gallagher.
“The Court should hold Mr. Giuliani in civil contempt for violating the clear and unambiguous terms of the Consent Injunction,” Gottlieb’s 14-page motion concludes, “and hold a hearing to determine the appropriate civil contempt sanction to coerce Mr. Giuliani’s compliance with the Consent Injunction going forward.”
That injunction, which Giuliani agreed to and signed in May, held that he would cease publishing statements that the election workers meddled with the 2020 election, or “any of the Actionable Statements adjudged false and defamatory” in their defamation lawsuits, according to the permanent injunction cited in the letter.
But that agreement didn’t last long.
“It took only six months for Mr. Giuliani to resume his defamatory campaign,” the motion letter reads.
During two live broadcasts of Giuliani’s web show, titled “America’s Mayor Live,” Giuliani “merely regurgitates the same exact lies that Giuliani has been spreading for years,” the motion states, citing broadcasts on Nov. 14 and 16.
Giuliani in those broadcasts claimed he has “the tapes that show them quadruple counting the ballots,” and repeatedly made reference to the “little hard drives” which he falsely claims were used to “fix the machines,” the letter said.
“Right now now they they they [sic] want to take $145 million for my telling the truth,” Giuliani states on his Nov. 12 livestream. “I’m sorry they’re going to sue me again for saying it but what am I going to do but tell the truth?”
The attorneys called Giuliani’s statements “unambiguous violations” of the injunction.
The motion also cites Giuliani re-sharing several social media posts that make the same defamatory claims against the workers.
Giuliani was ordered to surrender his pricy Manhattan apartment, prized memorabilia, jewelry, watches and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL coupe to help satisfy the $148 million judgment against him.
At a Wednesday press conference — held in front of the Midtown law office representing the Georgia election workers — Giuliani’s new attorney defended the mayor and decried the defamation judgment.
“The $148 million judgment against Mayor Rudy Giuliani is astronomical, unconstitutional and unamerican,” said Staten Island divorce attorney Joseph Cammarata, who has been representing Giuliani since Friday.
Others at the brief news conference also took at the workers.
“In my opinion, we all see and saw what was happening during the time of whatever Rudy is being accused of,” said Madeline Brame, the mother of slain NYPD sergeant Hason Correa who has appeared on Giuliani’s webstream and spoke at this year’s Republican National Convention.
“They want us to not believe our lying eyes,” Brame said, “but we all saw it.”
Noticing Cammarata, she corrected her speech back on its course of praising Giuliani for helping her and her family.
“I’m not going to go there,” she said. “I have to tread lightly.”
