Rudy Giuliani speaks to reporters after Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump spoke at a primary election night party in Nashua, N.H., Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Rudy Giuliani is being sued yet again by defamed Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss. And this time, they are asking a court to shut him up for good.
In December 2023, the two women won a $148 million default defamation verdict over a campaign against the women in which Giuliani falsely proclaimed the pair were engaged in fraud and had “cheated” voters during the 2020 presidential election.
Those lies were rebroadcast by former President Donald Trump — and others in his orbit — and shared far and wide. Despite being quickly and thoroughly debunked, the lies were seized upon by adherents of the 45th president, leading to hundreds of death threats — many of them racist — against the mother and daughter, who are Black.
Since then, Giuliani has continued to repeat similar allegations against both Freeman and Moss on his since-canceled radio show.
On Friday, in the case before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane, Freeman and Moss filed a complaint seeking injunctive relief to “permanently” bar Giuliani from “repeating the defamatory statements for which he has been held liable” in the defamation lawsuit as well as “any substantially similar statements.”
“Mr. Giuliani’s persistence in making these statements after all that has transpired, coupled with his refusal to agree to refrain from continuing to make such statements, make clear that he intends to continue in his campaign of targeted defamation and harassment,” the 13-page filing reads. “Accordingly, there is an overwhelming, ongoing, and imminent risk that Mr. Giuliani will inflict substantial reputational and emotional harm on Plaintiffs. This has to stop.”
“Enough is enough,” the new lawsuit continues. “Contrary to his delusions of grandeur, the law does apply to Mr. Giuliani, and it is beyond time to make him follow it.”
The instant lawsuit was filed in a federal bankruptcy court because the former Trump attorney’s case there is directly – by the admission of multiple parties to the case – related to the defamation case. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy three days after he lost that case.
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On April 15, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell denied a new trial request on the merits, maintaining that the former New York City mayor was still on the hook for defaming Freeman and Moss with several false statements about their roles in the 2020 election.
On April 17, Giuliani’s legal team filed a notice with Lane asking for permission to spend a “flat fee” of $250,000 so he could hire a friend and professional colleague he has known since the 1970s to represent him at the appellate level in the defamation case.
Activity on the bankruptcy case docket has been frenetic, fast-paced, and voluminous since then.
While Giuliani’s creditors have been given the go-ahead to perform a deep financial dive using an outside accounting firm, the debtor has asked for permission to file his direct appeal of the defamation verdict and judgment – eliciting strongly negative reactions from those same creditors – who say he has repeatedly shirked his obligations.
Giuliani has defended himself by saying he is more or less working on the details of his bankruptcy case alone because his accountant quit and no one else wants to work with him.
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Additionally voluminous, the latest lawsuit alleges, has been the debtor himself when it comes to Freeman and Moss.
“Undeterred by facts, logic, decency, professional discipline, court orders in multiple jurisdictions, a criminal indictment, a multimillion dollar jury verdict, or declaring bankruptcy as a result, Mr. Giuliani has entered year four of intentionally defaming Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss—repeating the very same lies that Plaintiffs engaged in fraud during their service as election workers during the 2020 presidential election,” the lawsuit reads.
The filing cites several recent times on his radio show when Giuliani repeats similar claims to the ones that resulted in the judgment and verdict his attorney termed “the civil equivalent of a death penalty.”
One such iteration included in the lawsuit reads:
Fir- Fir- First, I was sued by the two women who were counting multiple ballots in Georgia. We have them, one of them on tape doing it. And I’m sued because I offered an opinion that they were doing it on radio and television. So I’m sued for defamation. And I also pointed out that anybody could see it on tape that wanted to . . . for these women, who I wasn’t allowed to put in evidence, the tape that shows them doing what I said they did . . . they don’t have the evidence that I can show you tonight of them counting the ballots four times. One two, one two, four times four times four times.
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The lawsuit says Giuliani’s continued campaign against Freeman and Moss is not only still defamatory but has a direct bearing on the eventual outcome of the bankruptcy case itself.
“Mr. Giuliani made these statements knowing the impact his past defamation had on Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss and knowing the harm that ongoing defamation would cause,” the lawsuit goes on. “Mr. Giuliani cannot be permitted to use the bankruptcy system as a shield while continuing his baseless attacks on Plaintiffs. Left unchecked, Mr. Giuliani’s statements will dramatically increase post-petition claims against his estate and drain it of any distributable value for his creditors. Plaintiffs accordingly bring this adversary proceeding for injunctive relief to put a stop to Mr. Giuliani’s continuing, knowing defamation, once and for all.”
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