Rudy Giuliani should be held in civil contempt for continuing to lie about two election workers to whom he already owes $148 million for defamation, lawyers for the two women wrote in a court filing Wednesday.
The request comes months after Giuliani agreed in court never to accuse Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss of election fraud again. Despite that agreement earlier this year, Giuliani continued to spread lies about them on his live-streamed show.
“You would think they wouldn’t be allowed to take all my property until the case was upheld on appeal and I had a chance to show them that they never showed me the tapes of them counting the… ballots quadruple ” he said. said during a Nov. 12 episode.
“Then…another one, um, they’re passing around these little little hard drives that we claim were used to fix the machines, and they say they were candy. Well, look at it… it looks like a hard drive to me, and they told me it was a hard drive and there’s no evidence it was candy.
Freeman and Moss were both cleared of any wrongdoing by Georgia investigators. The lie that they had fraudulently counted the ballots was central to efforts by Giuliani, Donald Trump and others to overturn the election results.
On November 14, Giuliani again repeated the lie that Freeman and Moss had tampered with the vote. He said, “You can see if you want to see in living color her quadruple counting votes and the people being thrown out of the arena.”
Attorneys for Freeman and Moss wrote: “These statements repeat the exact same lies for which Mr. Giuliani has already been held liable, and for which he agreed to be bound by a court order to stop repeating. These are unequivocal violations of the consent order. The court should hold Mr. Giuliani in civil contempt and – after a hearing if necessary – impose sanctions designed to ensure Mr. Giuliani’s compliance with the consent order.”
The lawyers asked US District Judge Beryl Howell, who oversaw the defamation case against Giuliani in Washington DC, to hold him in civil contempt for defying court orders. They did not specify what punishment he should receive. Howell ordered Giuliani and his lawyers to appear for a hearing on December 12.
Ted Goodman, a spokesman for Giuliani, said the request was “a disingenuous and duplicitous attack designed to deprive Mayor Rudy Giuliani of his right to freedom of speech.”
“Mayor Giuliani has every right under the First Amendment of the Constitution to defend himself, especially since the other side continues to leak to the press. The ongoing lawsuits against Mayor Giuliani must end. It is a complete horror and utterly shameful to see these people trying to destroy this good and honest man who dedicated his life to serving others.”
Giuliani has already turned over several luxury watches, his New York City apartment and a 1980s Mercedes-Benz to Freeman and Moss.
