Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City on September 11, 2022 (John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx).
Just a few weeks after claiming he was too broke to afford groceries, Rudy Giuliani may have put himself on the hook for even more debt after missing a court-ordered deadline to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court for allegedly repeating the same lies about the 2020 election that already resulted in a $148 million judgment against the former New York City mayor.
Attorneys for Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss on Tuesday notified U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell that Giuliani failed to respond to their request that he be held in civil contempt by the Dec. 2 deadline set by the court.
According to Tuesday’s filing, Giuliani was well aware of the deadline for filing his response as well as the upcoming Dec. 12 hearing on the matter — he just simply failed to file anything.
“During a November 26, 2024 hearing in the Southern District of New York in the pending enforcement actions, Mr. Giuliani’s counsel discussed the Motion for Civil Contempt on the record at length, including references not just to the Motion but the hearing date,” Moss and Freeman’s attorneys wrote. “Mr. Giuliani was present in the courtroom and personally participated in the hearing. Mr. Giuliani sought a postponement [of] a January 16, 2025 trial date in that Court in part because, according to Mr. Giuliani’s counsel, Plaintiffs’ Motion for Civil Contempt is Mr. Giuliani’s ‘main focus right now.””
In their Nov. 20 motion for contempt, Freeman and Moss claimed Giuliani’s defamatory campaign against them continued even after they were awarded the astronomical judgment and Giuliani declared bankruptcy. To curb Giuliani’s behavior and prevent additional legal action, he eventually consented to a permanent injunction prohibiting him from making any additional claims or statements indicating that the plaintiffs had “engaged in wrong-doing in connection with the 2020 presidential election.”
But the former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan has been “brazenly violating that consent injunction,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys say. According to the Nov. 20, filing (emphasis in original):
In two recent broadcasts of his nightly show, Mr. Giuliani claimed — unambiguously referring to Plaintiffs — that “they never let me show the tapes that show them quadruple counting the the the ballots,” that his tapes showed Plaintiffs “passing these little uh little hard drives that we maintain were used to fix the machines right and they say it was candy. Well you look at it looks like a hard drive to me and they told me it was a hard drive and there’s no proof that it was candy,” and that “you can see if you want uh in living color her quadruple counting votes and the people uh thrown out of the Arena.” These statements repeat the exact same lies for which Mr. Giuliani has already been held liable, and which he agreed to be bound by court order to stop repeating. They constitute unambiguous violations of the Consent Injunction.
Those statements about Moss and Freeman “merely regurgitate the exact same lies that Giuliani has been spreading for years” which he explicitly agreed not to repeat, the motion says. Evidence that he violated the court’s injunction is “not just ‘clear and convincing,’ it is overwhelming,” the plaintiffs’ attorney wrote.
Howell also noted in her order scheduling a hearing that, should Giuliani fail to respond to the motion for contempt, it would be treated as “conceding that motion.”
Ted Goodman, a Giuliani spokesperson, previously told The Guardian that the request for contempt was nothing more than a “duplicitous attack” aimed at curbing the former mayor’s free speech rights.
“Mayor Giuliani, under the first amendment of the constitution, has every right to defend himself, especially as the other side consistently leaks to the press,” he said. “The ongoing lawfare against Mayor Giuliani must end. It’s a complete abomination, and totally outrageous, to watch these people try and destroy this good and honest man who has dedicated his life to serving others.”
Giuliani’s widespread legal troubles have continued to worsen of late. After a federal judge in New York last month shredded the former personal attorney to Donald Trump for his “ridiculous” efforts to keep valuable personal property owed to Freeman and Moss, Giuliani’s attorneys quit without telling him. He has since hired a new attorney in the bankruptcy enforcement case.
Howell issued another order on Wednesday giving Giuliani until 2 p.m. Friday to show cause why the request for contempt shouldn’t be granted “as conceded.” Giuliani is still scheduled to appear in-person before Howell on Dec. 12.
