Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
A federal judge in New York on Tuesday rejected a bid by Rudy Giuliani to appeal the $146 million judgment levied against him for defaming two 2020 election workers, castigating Donald Trump’s former personal attorney for his “troubling attitude” toward the law and the proceedings, which the judge said left him “disturbed.”
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge for the Southern District of New York Sean H. Lane on Tuesday formally denied Giuliani’s motion to appeal the sizable judgment, emphasizing that little headway had been made in the present case due in large part to Giuliani’s failure to abide by court deadlines and rulings.
In explaining his reasoning, Lane said that he saw the request to appeal as little more than an “impediment to the progress of the bankruptcy,” a person with knowledge of the proceedings told Law&Crime.
“I could use a lot of less kind adjectives” about Giuliani, Lane said Tuesday in reference to the former New York City mayor’s behavior.
The judge further decried Giuliani for displaying what he characterized as a “troubling attitude vis-à-vis the law and the court system,” adding, “I am disturbed,” according to the person who witnessed the proceedings.
Freeman’s attorney, Rachel Strickland, told the court that Giuliani was “rope-a-doping everyone,” Law&Crime has learned, claiming that the former mayor had been spending funds to pay his girlfriend’s credit card bill while in the midst of his own bankruptcy proceedings. She also emphasized that Giuliani’s attorneys had not reached out about attempting to settle the judgment or began the process of selling off any of his several properties.
Giuliani’s own attorney on Tuesday conceded that his client had been inaccurate in reporting his finances, but said Giuliani’s home proceeds would be put “in escrow for creditors.”
The bankruptcy proceedings began shortly after Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss won the massive judgment against Giuliani, who falsely proclaimed the pair were engaged in fraud and had “cheated” voters during the 2020 presidential election.
Those lies were repeated by former President Donald Trump and his followers, reaching tens of millions of people. 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 continued to repeat similar allegations against both Freeman and Moss on his now-canceled radio show, leading the duo to file yet another defamation suit against him. Lane scheduled a hearing for Thursday regarding Giuliani allegedly continuing to defame Freeman and Mason.
Notably, Giuliani lost the Freeman case by default due to his “willful shirking of his discovery obligations” — and declined to testify in his own defense at trial. Instead of testifying, Giuliani’s only statements came outside of the courthouse.
“When I testify, the whole story will be definitively clear that what I said was true, and that, whatever happened to them — which is unfortunate about other people overreacting — everything I said about them is true,” Giuliani said, before declining to testify.
Matt Naham and Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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