Rudy Giuliani snubbed judge’s order in defamation case, election worker says

Rudy Giuliani has failed to comply with a federal judge's order to turn over evidence and pay legal fees to election workers he defamed, according to a new court filing.

In papers filed Thursday, lawyers for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss say Giuliani "failed to take any of the actions" a federal judge ordered him to carry out by Wednesday, including paying $89,000 in attorneys' fees for the two election workers.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., issued the order last month in response to Giuliani's having failed to comply with earlier court orders.

An attorney and a spokesperson for Giuliani did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday night.

In her ruling last month, Howell blasted Giuliani for repeatedly ignoring court orders demanding he turn over required information to Freeman and Moss for their civil suit alleging he defamed them after the 2020 presidential election.

"The bottom line is that Giuliani has refused to comply with his discovery obligations and thwarted plaintiffs Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ArShaye Moss’s procedural rights to obtain any meaningful discovery in this case,” Howell wrote.

She granted Freeman and Moss a default judgment last month finding Giuliani "civilly liable on plaintiffs’ defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, and punitive damage claims."

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Howell also ordered Giuliani to turn over personal and business financial documents by Wednesday and to pay Freeman and Moss' lawyers for legal costs tied to trying to get him to comply with court orders. Furthermore, she ordered his businesses to pay $43,684 for costs related to a similar motion, "with interest on that amount to accrue from September 20, 2023 until the date of final judgment against Giuliani personally if his eponymous businesses fail to comply."

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In a separate ruling Thursday, before Freeman and Moss' filing, Howell set a Dec. 11 trial date to determine a dollar amount for damages in the defamation case.

Giuliani's former lawyers sued him this week, claiming he owed about $1.4 million in unpaid legal fees. Giuliani responded that the figure was "in excess to anything approaching legitimate fees."

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Giuliani pleads not guilty in Georgia election case

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In their lawsuit, Freeman and Moss accused Giuliani of turning their lives upside down by falsely claiming they'd committed election fraud while they were serving as election workers in Fulton County, Georgia.

Giuliani had claimed the pair were “passing around USB ports like they were vials of heroin or cocaine” as they were counting votes in the 2020 election. The House Jan. 6 committee’s report found they were passing a ginger mint.

Freeman was targeted with death threats because of Giuliani's repeated claims, which then-President Donald Trump echoed.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has criminally charged Trump and Giuliani over their roles in the harassment campaign, as well as other alleged schemes designed to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 victory in the state.

Both have pleaded not guilty.