Following the handing down of his $148 million judgment against him for defaming election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, Rudy Giuliani told a gaggle of reporters that he stands by what he said about them, and that he will pursue an appeal or retrial of the case, claiming that the size of the judgment would assist him in getting it thrown out.
But not so fast, Ronnell Andersen Jones of the Columbia University Knight Institute told MSNBC's Alicia Menendez — it's actually not so simple for Giuliani to get another trial. In fact, he all but forfeited a defense in the one he already had.
"I want to run through the number one more time for anyone who has just joined us, a little shy of $150 million total," said Menendez. "You heard Rudy Giuliani come out, defiant, saying this is not over. Your sense, legally speaking, of where this goes next?"
"Well, if we listen to what he said, he's seeking an appeal or some sort of trial in front of the another court," said Jones. "He's going to have a difficult time doing so."
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The big problem for Giuliani, she continued, is that "it isn't that he was robbed of the opportunity to litigate on this question. Rather, he declined to participate. The default judgment was issued when he refused to engage in discovery. He refused to offer the evidence that is required in a court of law to the other side, and he shielded information about his own finances in order to keep that information private and not in the public sphere."
"So, the ability to be able to move forward here with any kind of challenge will be complicated, because we don't see him in a place where ... he was willing to participate in the first instance," Jones added.
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Ronnell Andersen Jones says Giuliani's appeal won't workwww.youtube.com
