Giuliani Is Facing Sanctions in Defamation Suit by Georgia Election Workers

Zoe Tillman
·4 min read
2
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

(Bloomberg) -- Rudy Giuliani should face “severe” sanctions for failing to preserve and turn over electronic records in a defamation lawsuit filed by two Georgia election workers who he accused of fraud after the 2020 presidential race, their lawyers said in a court filing.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, on Tuesday asked US District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington to enter a “default” judgment against Giuliani as punishment — meaning he’d be liable for defamation without going through a trial or other legal proceedings. The case would move next to determining what damages he owes.

Giuliani and the plaintiffs had been in talks about a partial settlement, which they said in a joint filing last week would cover “factual issues” about Giuliani’s liability, avoid a sanctions fight and “resolve large portions of this litigation.” But Tuesday’s motion from the plaintiffs signals they had failed to reach an agreement, at least for now.

Lawyers for the election workers acknowledged they were asking for the most serious sanction possible against Giuliani, a former Mayor of New York and a legal adviser to Donald Trump. They argued it was necessary because Giuliani’s alleged failure to safeguard records hurt their ability to gather evidence to determine whether he knew the election fraud claims he was making against Freeman and Moss were false.

Preserving Evidence

“Giuliani is an attorney with over half a century of experience and therefore is intimately familiar with his obligation to make reasonable efforts to preserve electronic discovery,” the lawyers wrote. “Despite this, Defendant Giuliani has now effectively conceded that he has not taken even the most basic steps to preserve evidence that might be relevant to this litigation.”

Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Giuliani who also serves as his spokesperson, denounced the sanctions request.

“The requests by these lawyers were deliberately overly burdensome, and sought information well beyond the scope of this case — including divorce records — in an effort to harass, intimidate and embarrass Mayor Rudy Giuliani,” Goodman said in a statement. “It’s part of a larger effort to smear and silence Mayor Giuliani for daring to ask questions, and for challenging the accepted narrative.”

If Howell isn’t inclined to enter the default judgment, the plaintiffs proposed several alternatives. They said Howell could order “adverse inferences,” which means a jury could reach negative conclusions about Giuliani’s liability based on the evidence issue. They also said the judge also could bar him from relying on evidence he hadn’t produced, or force Giuliani to turn over his devices for the plaintiffs to inspect.

Freeman and Moss have alleged that Giuliani, who helped direct former president Trump’s postelection legal strategy, pushed false conspiracy theories that the pair committed election fraud to secure President Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia. State officials repeatedly disputed the fraud claims.

Freeman and Moss were formally cleared of any wrongdoing in a report issued in June. But in the months after the election, the women said that they received a torrent of threats and harassment.

Read More: Giuliani Records Row in Election Suit a ‘Murky Mess,’ Judge Says

Giuliani lost a motion to have the case tossed out late last year. The litigation since has been mired in a fight over evidence.

According to the latest sanctions request by the plaintiffs, while Giuliani turned off an “auto-delete” function, he failed to show he took “reasonable steps” to preserve information in his electronic devices and email, social media, and other messaging accounts — including some he said had been “wiped” or that he no longer could access.

The FBI made copies of records on some of his devices when it seized them in an unrelated criminal probe, but the plaintiffs said they still didn’t know what was stored in that database and whether it covered the universe of records potentially relevant to their case.

In June, Howell ordered Giuliani to cover what it cost for Freeman and Moss to successfully petition the court to force him to produce evidence; the plaintiffs’ legal team calculated the amount totaled more than $89,000.

Giuliani is still facing defamation lawsuits filed by voting software companies Dominion Voting Systems Inc. and Smartmatic Corp. over his false election-fraud claims. His law license has been suspended in New York and he’s facing disbarment proceedings in Washington over his post-election activities.

The case is Freeman v. Herring Networks Inc., 1:21-cv-03354, US District Court, District of Columbia.

(Updates with statement from Rudy Giuliani’s spokesperson)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.