Judge holds Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for continued lies about Georgia election workers

[January 11, 2025]  By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court Friday for the second time in a week, as a federal judge warned him he could be sent to jail if he doesn't stop spreading lies about two former Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgement against him.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., found the former New York City mayor and onetime attorney for President-elect Donald Trump violated court orders barring him from defaming Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. The judge ordered him to review trial testimony and other materials from the case, and warned him that future violations could land him behind bars.

Moss and Freeman sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation for falsely accusing them of committing election fraud in connection with the 2020 election. His lies upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.

Giuliani smiled and chuckled as the judge explained why she was holding him in contempt of court. Howell, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, said it is “outrageous and shameful” for Giuliani to suggest that he is the one who has been treated unfairly in this case.

“This takes real chutzpah, Mr. Giuliani,” she said.

Shortly before the hearing began, Giuliani slammed the judge in a social media post, calling her “bloodthirsty” and biased against him and the proceeding a “hypocritical waste of time.” After leaving the courtroom, Giuliani called the hearing a farce and the judge “completely biased and prejudiced.”

“I don’t care what she did. She is a completely farcical judge,” Giuliani said outside the courtroom. “She didn’t consider a damn thing I said. She wrote it beforehand.”

It’s the latest legal setback for Giuliani, who is also facing criminal charges and lost his law license in D.C. and New York after pursuing false claims that Trump made about his 2020 election loss.

Giuliani briefly testified during Friday's hearing, only to authenticate records about his personal finances.

The judge didn't fine Giuliani for his most recent defamatory comments about the case, but she said would impose daily fines of $200 if he doesn't certify within 10 days that he has complied with her order to review trial testimony and other case-related material.

A jury sided with the mother and daughter in December 2023 and awarded them $75 million in punitive damages plus roughly $73 million in other damages.

"Mr. Giuliani started lying about Plaintiffs in December of 2020, and refused to stop after repeatedly being told that his election-rigging conspiracy theory about Plaintiffs was baseless, malicious, and dangerous," the plaintiffs' lawyers wrote.

Rudy Giuliani, right, arrives at federal court in Washington, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Giuliani's attorneys argued that the plaintiffs haven't presented “clear and convincing” evidence that he violated a court order in the defamation case in comments that he made on November podcasts about alleged ballot counting irregularities in Georgia.

“Giuliani acted with the good faith belief that his comments did not violate the (judgment) and he should not be subject to contempt sanctions,” his lawyers wrote.

On Monday in New York, Judge Lewis Liman found Giuliani in contempt of court for related claims that he failed to turn over evidence to help the judge decide whether he can keep a Palm Beach, Florida, condominium.

Giuliani, who testified in Liman’s Manhattan courtroom Jan. 3, said he didn't turn over everything because he believed the requests were overly broad, inappropriate or even a “trap” set by plaintiffs' lawyers.

Giuliani, 80, had tried to get out of appearing in person Friday, telling the judge he gets death threats and has been told to be careful about traveling. But he withdrew his request to appear virtually after the judge ordered him to explain whether he has traveled from his Florida home within the last month.

On the witness stand at the defamation trial, Moss and Freeman described fearing for their lives after becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory that Giuliani and other Republicans spread as they tried to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Moss told jurors she tried to change her appearance, seldom leaves her home and suffers from panic attacks.

Giuliani has pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges in the Arizona case alleging he spread false claims of election fraud there after the 2020 election.

He was separately charged in Georgia along with Trump and other allies of the former president accused of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. The future of the Georgia case is unclear after an appeals court said Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office could not continue to prosecute it because of an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship she had with a special prosecutor she hired to lead the case.

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Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer contributed.

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