Rudy Giuliani concedes making false statements about Georgia election workers - The Washington Post
By: John Wagner and Amy B (Washington Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Rudy Giuliani, who served as a lawyer for former president Donald Trump, is no longer contesting as a legal matter that he made false and defamatory statements about two former Georgia election workers — but argues in a new court filing that what amounted to false claims about vote-rigging in the 2020 presidential election was constitutionally protected speech and did not damage the workers.
The filing late Tuesday in a federal court in Washington is the latest twist in a lawsuit brought by Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, who counted ballots in Fulton County, Ga., during the November 2020 election.
In a defamation lawsuit filed in late 2021, the pair claimed they became the focus of unfounded conspiracy theories peddled by Giuliani and employees of the right-wing news organization One America News. Giuliani has denied the claims. OAN settled with Freeman and Moss for an undisclosed sum last year.
In his latest filing, Giuliani, a former New York mayor, stipulates that he made statements that "carry meaning that is defamatory per se." He also stipulates in the two-page statement that some of his statements were "false," as the election workers alleged.
His lawyer, however, stressed that Giuliani was not admitting to the plaintiff's allegations but instead was seeking to speed up the litigation through a legal maneuver.
In the filing, Giuliani says that his stipulations do not affect his arguments that "his statements are constitutionally protected statements or opinions" and that his conduct did not cause "any damages" to the plaintiffs.
In a separate filing, Giuliani lawyer Joseph D. Sibley IV says that Giuliani "does not admit to Plantiffs' allegations" and that his stipulation would short-circuit the need for more discovery in the case.
Earlier this month, Giuliani was sanctioned in the case for failing to search for and turn over records in a timely fashion. The order from the federal judge overseeing the case came after lawyers for Freeman and Moss accused Giuliani of failing to fulfill "basic" obligations to turn over records and refusing to detail his efforts to preserve and collect documents.
Tuesday's filing, signed by Giuliani, says he is making the stipulations "to avoid unnecessary expenses in litigating what he believes to be unnecessary disputes."
The filing also says that the stipulations are limited to the Georgia case — an apparent move to limit legal exposure elsewhere,including in the investigation of special counsel Jack Smith.
Michael J. Gottlieb, a lawyer for Freeman and Moss, said Wednesday that his clients were "pleased" with Giuliani's concession.
"Giuliani's stipulation concedes what we have always known to be true — Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss honorably performed their civic duties in the 2020 presidential election in full compliance with the law; and the allegations of election fraud he and former-President Trump made against them have been false since day one," Gottlieb said in a statement. "While certain issues, including damages, remain to be decided by the court, our clients are pleased with this major milestone in their fight for justice, and look forward to presenting what remains of this case at trial."
In their lawsuit, Freeman and Moss said they became "the objects of vitriol, threats, and harassment" as a result of the "malicious lies" spread by Giuliani and OAN. Among other things, Giuliani repeatedly claimed that misleading security footage of Moss and Freeman was proof that ballots had been deliberately mishandled.
The lawsuit also contends that Giuliani pushed his claims about vote-rigging long after Georgia election officials made statements debunking them.
Giuliani's conduct in Georgia was part of a far broader effort to overturn the 2020 election results for Trump, who continues to falsely claim that the election was rigged. Among other consequences for Giuliani, a D.C. Court of Appeals committee that oversees attorney conduct has recommended that he be disbarred for "unparalleled" attempts to reverse the 2020 results.
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Not sure why that photo showed up. Doesnt look like Giuliani unless he's on the stretcher.
The fetch feature did that to me yesterday. The very same photo. I had to manually upload the photo from the actual article. Weird...
Fetch simply uses the picture designated in the article as the image. Each author / publisher can designate what they wish (or nothing) and they can also make mistakes.
I tried to seed an article over the weekend, and it used the same pic, which is unrelated to the article. I had to leave, and it slipped my mind, or I'd have mentioned it to you.
There is nothing I can do about this programmatically since Fetch simply uses what it is given. I fixed the image in this article by finding the correct image and using Fetch Image to link it to this article.
His defense is that lying about innocent poll workers and ruining their lives is protected under "free speech". This bad man deserves every bad thing that is headed his way.
The lying POS made their lives a living hell and it happened to a lot of people that were doing their best to ensure we had a fair election.
I hope that fricking asshole has to pay millions and loses everything that he has. I have no use for cowards like him attacking people with lies.
Every person that Rudy defamed should sue him. They are not "public" figures and his free speech rights DO NOT include defamation.
I can't believe a former prosecutor wouldn't know that the corrupt FBI would be spying on him.
I still am trying to figure out why Giuliani would prostitute himself for Trump and destroy his own credibility (while opening himself up for lawsuits) by making and repeating obvious blatant lies.
What drives someone who used to be praised as one of our best mayors to engage in a lying campaign? I suspect it is the same force that motivates others to lie (and fall on their swords) for Trump.
He was no longer being praised and wanted back in the limelight again?
By telling obvious outrageous lies??? Has he lost his friggin' mind?
One thought is this. I have noticed a very clear pattern of those associated with Trump. They lie. Some of them lie outrageously.
My hypothesis is that Trump has an effect on some people which encourages them to engage in unabashed, unconstrained lying. Maybe they become convinced that it is an effective technique since Trump clearly gets away with utterly crazy lies. Maybe they think this will work for them too.
We can see this effect right here too.
Whatever it is, the trend is disgusting.
I think it all goes back to right wing media, they make things up so the consumers of that garbage eventually think they can lie too.
I think it is impossible to underestimate the damage conspiracy theories have done to our society over the past 20 or 30 years. There are literally millions of people in this country, perhaps tens of millions, who believe things that not only are not true but have been repeatedly debunked.
Whatever the root cause, it is clear that intellectual dishonesty is taking over.
Exactly, left wing media would never do that. The Bay of Pigs, JFK assassination, CIA Crack and AIDS distribution, etc., all right wing nonsense.
Some people will believe anything as long as it gives them the attention they crave. He thought that since Trump conned everyone for the previous election, he might do it again.
Why not be like the rest of the right wingers and just start citing things from a century ago? We'll just continue with today's examples.
History has a long reach, Ozzy.
Especially when you are trying to distract from current day events apparently.
What current event do you imagine that I tried to distract from?
The article that you are commenting on...????
How can he say that his lies about those poll workers didn't cause any damage? They were threatened and harassed. Their reputations were also sullied.
Go back to bed, Rudy