'More holes than Swiss cheese': Judge rips Giuliani after finding him liable for defamation
A federal judge's finding that Rudy Giuliani defamed two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of fraud was accompanied by a scathing order.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell entered a default judgment against the former Donald Trump campaign lawyer – which means he didn't answer the charges against him or didn't attend hearings – and ordered him to pay more than $130,000 in attorneys' fees. She faulted Giuliani for stalling or outright refusing to turn over evidence to the plaintiffs' attorneys for discovery as required by law.
"Yet, 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 non-compliant party may try artificially to preserve for appeal," Howell wrote in her ruling.
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Giuliani conceded last month that he made false claims about election worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea ArShaye Moss, which they said resulted in numerous threats, but argued those statements were protected under the First Amendment.
"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.
The judge said sanctions were necessary because Giuliani had shared barely any of the evidence sought by the women's attorneys, in some cases just "blobs of indecipherable data," and she said the conditions he set out for sharing documents had "more holes than Swiss cheese."
"Perhaps, he has made the calculation that his overall litigation risks are minimized by not complying with his discovery obligations in this case," Howell wrote. "Whatever the reason, obligations are case specific and withholding required discovery in this case has consequences."
"Given the willful shirking of his discovery obligations in anticipation of and during this litigation, Giuliani leaves little other choice," the judge added. "For the reasons set out below, the pending motion is granted. Default judgment will be entered against Giuliani as a discovery sanction ... holding him civilly liable on plaintiffs’ defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, and punitive damage claims, and Giuliani is directed to reimburse plaintiffs for attorneys’ fees and costs associated with their instant motion."