A federal jury last week returned a verdict awarding plaintiffs Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, $148.17 million in damages in their defamation trial against Rudy Giuliani arising out of his claims that the two election workers committed fraud during the 2020 election in Georgia. The judgment will bankrupt Giuliani, and the worst is yet to come when he faces criminal charges in Georgia next year for racketeering in connection with his efforts to overturn that election.
How did the man who was once America’s most famous prosecutor — using the same racketeering theories that are now being used against him — end up in the defense box?
Bad lawyering is certainly part of the reason. In the defamation trial, the jury’s role was limited to determining how much he would pay. Giuliani had already conceded that he lied about the two women’s activities. The stipulation was supposedly intended to “avoid unnecessary expenses in litigating what he believes to be unnecessary disputes.” Giuliani is drowning in legal fees that he can’t afford to pay without help from former President Donald Trump, who he can’t afford to desert, like some of Trump’s other lawyers have done in the Georgia case.
If that were not enough to seal his fate, he also refused to hand over evidence in discovery, leading the judge to sanction him. “The bottom line is that Giuliani has refused to comply with his discovery obligations,” the judge wrote last summer. “Just as taking shortcuts to win an election carries risks — even potential criminal liability — bypassing the discovery process carries serious sanctions, no matter what reservations a noncompliant party may try artificially to preserve for appeal.”
