‘You can’t lie in the court of law’: Trump’s Big Lie hits brick wall in court
REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
Rudy Giuliani, the former lawyer for ex-President Donald Trump, has acknowledged in a recent court filing that his statements concerning two Georgia election workers were defamatory.
In a federal court in Washington, Giuliani conceded that his remarks about Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and Ruby Freeman were inherently defamatory. In a lawsuit filed in December 2021, Moss and Freeman claimed that Giuliani tarnished their reputations by accusing them of colluding to generate and process illicit ballots clandestinely. Such claims have consistently been discredited by Georgia election officials, with no evidence to support them.
Giuliani clarified in the filing that his admission was exclusively for the sake of this lawsuit and not an acknowledgment of the truth of the accusations. Ted Goodman, Giuliani’s political advisor, stated that Giuliani aimed “to move on to the portion of the case that will permit a motion to dismiss., told MSNBC.
Michael Gottlieb, a lawyer representing Moss and Freeman, responded that Giuliani’s filing implicitly admits that his clients conducted their duties as election workers lawfully and that the allegations of election fraud by him and former President Trump against them were unfounded from the beginning.
Giuliani is also facing allegations from Freeman and Moss for not preserving critical evidence. Bob Costello, Giuliani’s attorney, refuted these claims in court documents, attributing issues regarding evidence quality to the management of electronic devices seized by federal authorities in an unrelated investigation, where no charges were filed.
The filing highlighted Giuliani’s intention “to avoid unnecessary expenses in litigating what he believes to be unnecessary disputes.” In addition to this, Giuliani, who once served as New York City’s mayor and Manhattan’s chief federal prosecutor, has also encountered other legal troubles over his unfounded allegations of rampant fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Giuliani’s law license was suspended by a New York state court, and a District of Columbia ethics hearing committee recommended earlier this month that his license be revoked in that jurisdiction.
He is also defending against defamation lawsuits from voting technology companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic over his false claims regarding the 2020 election. Giuliani has dismissed Smartmatic’s allegations as groundless and has also rejected Dominion’s claims.
