Judge finds Giuliani in civil contempt over 2020 election case

NEW YORK X (Reuters) – A judge on Monday found Rudy Giuliani to be in civil contempt of court in a $148 million defamation case brought by two Georgia election workers that the former New York City Mayor falsely accused of trying to help steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden.

The contempt citation by U.S. District Judge Lewis (JO:) Liman in Manhattan – the district where Giuliani had been the top federal prosecutor – marks a further fall from grace for Giuliani, once known as “America’s Mayor” for his response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 

The ruling stems from a lawsuit the election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Moss, brought against Giuliani in 2021. They accused the former personal lawyer to Republican President-elect Donald Trump of destroying their reputations by lying that they tried to help steal the 2020 election.

Giuliani made repeated false claims that a surveillance video showed the pair concealing and counting suitcases filled with illegal ballots at a basketball arena in Atlanta that was used to process votes.

Giuliani has been disbarred for making false claims about the 2020 election, and pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona that he aided Trump’s failed attempt to overturn his loss.

In July 2023, Giuliani conceded he made defamatory statements about Freeman and Moss, and a judge that August ruled he was liable for defamation as a sanction against him for failing to turn over electronic records to the two election workers.

A Washington, D.C., jury later ordered he pay Freeman and Moss roughly $73 million in compensation and $75 million as punishment.

Lawyers for Freeman and Moss have urged Liman to hold Giuliani in contempt for ignoring his orders to give up his Manhattan apartment, title to a 1980 Mercedes and sports memorabilia, and respond to questions about a Palm Beach, Florida, condominium he owns. 

The lawyers asked the judge to punish Giuliani by finding he did not treat the Palm Beach condominium as his permanent residence, meaning it could be turned over. 

Giuliani, 80, has claimed that his day-to-day life has been upended by the two election workers, making it difficult to obtain necessary paperwork, and that he has not “willfully disobeyed” any court orders.

He has also said he relied on his previous lawyers in the case to comply with information requests from Freeman and Moss.

Those lawyers, Kenneth Caruso and David Labkowski, withdrew in November, saying it was in part because Giuliani refused to comply with those requests.

Giuliani’s new lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, said in a court hearing on Monday that the time frame for Giuliani to respond to the election workers’ demands was tight but that he sought to comply.

“There’s been substantial compliance,” Cammarata said. “There is no defiance to the court.”