United States – The ex-lawyer of Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday pleaded the judge to enter a judgement in his favor or have another trial for a lawsuit by two Georgia election officials in which he was ordered to pay $148 million for falsely accusing them of election fraud.
Damages Award Challenge
The Washington federal jury instructed Giuliani to pay the two workers, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, for both reputational and emotional harm they stated they suffered after the latter made false claims that they manipulated votes against Trump.
The former New York mayor, who followed the verdict by declaring bankruptcy, sought the legal relief after the bankruptcy judge gave him a chance to challenge the damages award in the defamation case, provided that he financed this legal battle with donations, not his own money, Reuters reported.
Other lawsuits against Giuliani, a senior member of Trump’s legal team when the latter sought to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election, are currently stayed because of the bankruptcy proceedings in motion.
The jury awarded the $148 million defamation judgment to Moss and Freeman in December after the two tearfully held each one accuse a Giuliani and other Trump allies of threatening them with racism after they had been accused of hiding and scanning batches of illegal votes at a vote processing center in Atlanta.
Giuliani’s lawyer argued during the trial that others other than Freeman and Moss themselves are more responsible for the damage that was caused to them.
Before the trial a federal judge already found Giuliani liable in two of the counts – defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Also, in a civil conspiracy. The only question put forward to deliberation was how much the incrimination would be costly.
Dominion’s Counter Lawsuit
Dominion is suing Bloomberg for $1.3 billion for causing damage to the company. The attorney argued that the former mayor and his partners had invented and circulated “Big Lie” which deceived millions and made them believe in the company’s falsities and fraud, as repored by Reuters.
Dominion in turn stated it is filing the lawsuit to “correct the narrative”, in other words – to “stand on its own ground, its employees and the voting process”.
Legal Consequences for Giuliani
A group of legal eagles last week asked the judiciary of New York to suspend the license of Giuliani because he lied in post-election lawsuits and since he encouraged Trump’s side to quarrel over night and stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6.