“America’s Mayor,” Rudy Giuliani, will likely have to pay Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss “massive” damages, according to CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig, thanks in large part to “the single worst legal strategy ever devised by a human mind.”
As BizPac Review reported, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee, issued a default judgment against Giuliani in August, finding him liable for defamation, civil conspiracy and emotional distress after he “refused to comply with his discovery obligations.”
Federal judge finds Rudy Giuliani liable for defamation of Georgia election workers https://t.co/ekg4z2vgMj pic.twitter.com/HKXlS1kjXe
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) September 3, 2023
“Donning a cloak of victimization may play well on a public stage to certain audiences, but in a court of law this performance has served only to subvert the normal process of discovery in a straight-forward defamation case, with the concomitant necessity of repeated court intervention,” Howell wrote.
“Perhaps, he has made the calculation that his overall litigation risks are minimized by not complying with his discovery obligations in this case,” the judge continued. “Whatever the reason, obligations are case specific and withholding required discovery in this case has consequences.”
Giuliani had argued that he hadn’t preserved and produced the information in question because the FBI had seized his electronic devices, and it would cost him more than $320,000 to pay a vendor to access the archived documents.
The embattled former mayor had conceded that the claims he made against Freeman and Moss were false in a July court filing, but he insisted that the remarks are “constitutionally protected.”
Months later, a Washington, D.C. jury is now deliberating on just how much money Giuliani will have to fork over to Freeman and Moss, and the liberal media can hardly contain its salivating glee.
Asked by Kaitlan Collins, host of CNN’s “The Source” about Giuliani’s last-minute decision not to testify after “insisting all along” that he would, Honig called the move “smart.”
12.14.23 9:15 PM ET The Source’s @kaitlancollins w/ Senior CNN Legal Analyst and Former Assistant US Attorney SDNY Elie Honig @eliehonig and the Author of “Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America’s Mayor” @andrewkirtzman Topic : Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani… pic.twitter.com/iwvGLF4U9F
— Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) December 15, 2023
“Well, it’s the smartest move he’s made in years,” he said. “I mean, if he had taken the stand, imagine what a catastrophe that would’ve been. This man is a pathological liar. He can’t help himself.”
Outside the courtroom on Tuesday, Giuliani told reporters that “everything I said about them is true,” referring to the election workers.
He said, “of course” he doesn’t regret his remarks because, “I told the truth.”
“They were engaged in changing votes,” he stated.
According to Honig, he should have been expressing “remorse.”
“This case is what happens when you combine vicious, over-the-top defamation against innocent victims with the single worst legal strategy ever devised by a human mind,” he told Collins.
“Let’s go through the way Rudy and his lawyer approached this case,” he continued. “First, they agreed that they were liable, that Rudy was liable. They conceded, yes, what he did was defamatory.”
“Now, there may be a strategy there if your strategy is, we’re just gonna try to minimize damages. We’re gonna go in there, Rudy is gonna express remorse, he’s gonna say, ‘I got caught up in something stupid. I didn’t intend for my words to have this effect. I’m sorry,'” he explained. “Maybe you can minimize damages.”
“Instead, they go in on this damages trial and commit more defamation,” Honig stated. “They are just asking for a massive verdict, and I think we’re gonna see that tomorrow.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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