Giuliani found liable for defaming election workers in Georgia

A federal judge on Wednesday found former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani liable for defaming a couple of Fulton County election workers as part of his efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results.

The case now moves forward to trial in early 2024 to determine whether Mr. Giuliani, who served as former President Trump’s personal attorney, should have to pay damages to Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, and if so, how much.  

In her 57-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled in favor of Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss by default, saying Mr. Giuliani refused to comply with his legal obligations to provide the requested documents their lawyers sought in the discovery process as part of their push to determine whether he knowingly made false and derogatory statements.

“Perhaps, he has made the calculation that his overall litigation risks are minimized by not complying with his discovery obligations in this case,” Judge Howell said. “Whatever the reason, obligations are case specific and withholding required discovery in this case has consequences.”

Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Mr. Giuliani, said the sheer length of the opinion — which would usually be no more than two or three pages — is “a prime example of the weaponization of the justice system, where the process is the punishment.”

“This decision should be reversed, as Mayor Giuliani is wrongly accused of not preserving electronic evidence that was seized and held by the FBI,” Mr. Goodman said.

Judge Howell, in her opinion, said Mr. Giuliani failed to fulfill his most basic legal responsibilities.

“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,” she wrote.

Mr. Giuliani is directed to pay more than $89,000 in legal fees that Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss had incurred in the discovery process. She said his businesses must pay close to $44,000.

The ruling comes after Mr. Giuliani was indicted in Georgia this month along with Mr. Trump and 17 others over their efforts to overturn the state’s election results.

Mr. Giuliani has maintained his innocence.

Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss found themselves in the national limelight after Mr. Giuliani claimed on several occasions they mishandled ballots and fed fraudulent ballots into voting machines.

Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss responded by suing him in December 2021.

They appeared before the Jan. 6 House select committee to share the backlash they faced from Mr. Giuliani’s false claims.

Mr. Giuliani maintains his actions were protected under the First Amendment.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Ruby Freeman’s first name.