Rudy Giuliani Faces New Legal Warning

A legal request to "permanently bar" Rudy Giuliani "from continuing his malicious campaign" against two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, was submitted to a federal bankruptcy judge by Freeman and Moss' lawyers on Friday.

In December 2023, a jury found that the former New York City mayor and ex-personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump defamed the mother and daughter by falsely stating they committed election fraud during the 2020 presidential election while counting ballots in Fulton County, Georgia. Giuliani was ordered to pay Freeman and Moss $148 million.

Meanwhile, Trump has continued to claim, without providing evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud.

After the order was made, Giuliani told reporters he did not "regret a damn thing," but did say what Freeman and Moss went through was "deplorable" after they were subjected to abuse following his claims.

Freeman said she would "always have to be careful" because of the false claims that she and Moss meddled with votes during the 2020 election. Giuliani insisted he had "nothing to do with" the threats against them.

Friday's complaint states that "Mr. Giuliani has entered year four of intentionally defaming Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss—repeating the very same lies that Plaintiffs engaged in fraud during their service as election workers during the 2020 presidential election."

Following the jury's decision, Giuliani said the large sum has "destroyed" him. He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January. Giuliani, who vowed to appeal the $148 million defamation judgment, lost his bid to dismiss it last month. U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell said that Giuliani's "five threadbare arguments falls well short of persuading" that the evidence was clearly one-sided, and therefore the dismissal request was not sufficient.

Newsweek has reached out to Freeman and Moss's legal team as well as Giuliani's lawyer via email.

The new complaint outlines various incidents since the lawsuit where Giuliani continues to spread misinformation about the 2020 election and defame Freeman and Moss.

In the complaint, it cites a January 5, 2024, appearance on his daily X, formerly Twitter, live cast, America's Mayor Live, saying "[t]he case was in Georgia, the two women, I could play the tapes for you right now of one of them counting ballots four times. I wasn't allowed to play it at the trial, she'll probably put me in jail if I play them. God forbid you should find out the truth."

It also listed several other moments when Giuliani mentioned "those women who were, you know, counting up the votes a couple of times," or "quadruple and triple counting the same ballots."

Freeman and Moss argue that this continued campaign "of targeted defamation and harassment" poses an "imminent risk that Mr. Giuliani will inflict substantial reputational and emotional harm on Plaintiffs." The complaint concludes by asking the court to enjoin Giuliani.

Giuliani has previously described legal action against himself and Trump as "like the trials you would have during Hitler's era or Stalin's era," adding "If you say anything to defend yourself, you could go to jail." Trump is facing four indictments, two on the state level and two on the federal level. The former president maintains his innocence in those cases.

On Friday, Giuliani was suspended from WABC, a New York radio station, and his show was canceled after owner John Catsimatidis said Giuliani "crossed the line" promoting false information about the 2020 election. Giuliani then responded on X, stating that the station fired him because he "refused to give into their demand that I stop talking about the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election."

In a phone interview with The New York Times, Catsimatidis said, "We're not going to talk about fallacies of the November 2020 election. We warned him once. We warned him twice. He left me no option. I suspended him."