Rudolph Giuliani was held in contempt for the second time in one week after a federal judge found he violated an order to stop defaming two 2020 presidential election poll workers.
The ruling came from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday after Ruby Freeman and Wandrea’ “Shaye” Moss said the former New York City mayor disregarded a consent order barring him from making defamatory remarks alleging they rigged the 2020 election.
“Giuliani voluntarily signed and asked the Court to enter an order prohibiting him from continuing to spread defamatory lies about our clients,” Michael Gottlieb of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, an attorney representing Freeman and Moss, said in a statement Friday. “His later decision to abandon that order was unlawful, but thankfully, as today’s hearing underscores, nobody is above the law.”
The Georgia poll workers won a $148 million defamation judgment against Giuliani in December 2023. They argued last November that Giuliani had continued to “brazenly” violate the consent injunction.
“This contempt ruling is designed to prevent Mayor Giuliani from exercising his constitutional rights,” Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman said in a statement.
The ruling came after the former adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump was held in contempt in a New York federal court Jan. 6 for violating court orders requiring him to provide discovery related to his Palm Beach, Florida, condominium. The judge overseeing the New York case has ordered Giuliani to turn over his assets to help pay down the defamation judgment.
A trial is set to begin Jan. 16 in the New York case, which could lead to Giuliani losing his second residence after he was forced to turn over his New York apartment last year.
Giuliani is represented by Quainton Law PLLC and Law Offices of Jonathan Gross. The poll workers are represented by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, DuBose Miller LLC, and United to Protect Democracy.
The case is Freeman v. Giuliani, D.D.C., No. 23-cv-03754, 1/10/25.
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(With assistance from Alex Wolf.)
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