Rudy Giuliani flouted court orders and now he may have to finally pay up, the only question being how much.
That’s the reality the former lawman faces after U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington hit him with a lengthy, scathing opinion in Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss’ civil suit on Wednesday. The mother-daughter duo served as election workers in Georgia and were terrorized thanks to Donald Trump and Giuliani falsely claiming the pair committed fraud during the 2020 election.
The question at trial won’t be whether he’s liable but how much he has to pay the plaintiffs.
They sued Giuliani for defamation, among other things. But the tough-on-crime former U.S. Attorney-turned-Trump lawyer didn’t comply with discovery orders in the case and practically conceded his liability, leading Howell to enter what’s known as a “default judgment” against him. That means he’s legally liable, leaving the question of how much he owes for that liability, which will be determined at a trial.
That is, the question at trial won’t be whether he’s liable but how much he has to pay the plaintiffs. The trial still needs to be scheduled but may take place later this year or early 2024.
Howell said Giuliani only gave “lip service” to compliance with discovery obligations and court orders, with the bottom line being that his obstinance resulted in thwarting the plaintiffs’ rights “to obtain any meaningful discovery in this case.”
So, what, if anything, explains Giuliani’s behavior here? The judge offers some insight.
“Giuliani’s preference may be due to the fact, about which he has made no secret, that he faces liability, both civil and criminal, in other investigations and civil lawsuits,” Howell wrote.
“Whatever the reason,” she went on, “obligations are case specific and withholding required discovery in this case has consequences.” The judge also wrote of Giuliani’s goal to “bypass the discovery process and a merits trial — at which his defenses may be fully scrutinized and tested in our judicial system’s time-honored adversarial process — and to delay such a fair reckoning by taking his chances on appeal, based on the abbreviated record he forced on plaintiffs.” But, Howell noted, “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.” Whatever Giuliani’s plan, if he had or has one, he may soon learn just how serious the damages against him will be.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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