Former election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss told a judge in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani had once again made defamatory comments about them and argued that he should be held in civil contempt.
Giuliani “brazenly” violated an injunction placed on him in December 2023 after a federal court found him liable for defaming Moss and Freeman during the 2020 election, according to the motion for civil contempt filed by their attorneys. He was ordered to pay the women $148 million and agreed not to make any further false statements about them.
Moss and Freeman’s lawyers want the court to enter an order that puts Giuliani on notice that he will be fined for every violation in the future, and they have asked for a hearing to determine how much that fine should be. Traditionally, civil contempt orders place a sanction on an individual, declaring that they were disobedient, and are accompanied by penalties like fines, jail time, or both.
In 2020, Giuliani repeatedly and falsely accused Freeman and Moss of engaging in fraud when they were poll workers at State Farm Arena in Georgia. He made such comments on social media, television and podcasts, and even peddled them directly to former President Donald Trump, who used those claims to lash out at the women publicly.
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay the women $148 million. Freeman and Moss note in Wednesday’s motion to hold Giuliani in civil contempt that in May of this year, as bankruptcy proceedings were unfolding, they believed Giuliani might finally stop defaming them.
But that only lasted six months, they say.
The former New York City mayor “unambiguously” referred to Moss and Freeman during two recent broadcasts of his podcast and renewed claims that the women were fraudsters, according to the motion.
Moss and Freeman’s attorneys cited a Nov. 12 livestream of Giuliani’s podcast, “America’s Mayor Live,” and provided the following written transcript of his remarks:
Now if you wanted me to make out a check to pay my bills, I can’t do it because of judge um [off screen voice: Liman] Judge Liman and and the Biden uh the Biden people who are behind the case of the two women…You didn’t have $145 million in damages. In fact there’s, there’s video of you doing what I said. We can play it for you if you want. You framed me. You had a judge whose a bloodthirsty uh uh um January 6 sentencer, the biggest January 6 sentencer who told the other judges they weren’t giving strong enough sentences. She figured out a way to manipulate it so I never got a trial on liability, I never got a trial on damages. You never proved damages and you got $145 million, so I’m appealing it. You would think that they wouldn’t be allowed to take all my property until the thing was affirmed on appeal and I got a chance to show them that they never let me show the tapes that show them quadruple counting the the the ballots.
Giuliani then repeated a defamatory claim he has been making since 2021 that has been debunked by surveillance video and witness testimony, saying that Moss and Freeman passed a USB drive to each other containing votes for Joe Biden that they intended to use to alter tabulations.
“They’re passing these little uh little hard drives that we maintain were used to fix the machines right and they say it was candy. Well you look at it looks like a hard drive to me and they told me it was a hard drive and there’s no proof that it was candy,” Giuliani said, according to a transcript in the motion.
There was never a hard drive passed between the women. It was a ginger mint.
Giuliani also acknowledged that his remarks would likely cause him to be sued again.
“I’m sorry they’re going to sue me again for saying it but what am I going to do but tell the truth,” Giuliani said, per the transcript.
On Nov. 14, during another episode of “America’s Mayor Live,” Moss and Freeman’s lawyers note, Giuliani repeated claims that he had video evidence of the women quadrupling vote counts. A footnote in Wednesday’s motion notes that Giuliani has reposted a surveillance video from State Farm Arena twice on X this month, suggesting it was proof of fraud.
The surveillance video from the arena shows election workers resuming vote counts after they were told to stop. Video shows Moss and Freeman focusing their attention on boxes of ballots they removed from underneath tables. Proponents of the “Stop the Steal” movement claimed they were suitcases stuffed with ballots for Joe Biden. Three different law enforcement agencies reviewed all of the surveillance footage from State Farm Arena in Fulton County.
A final report issued on Mar. 7, 2023, by the Georgia secretary of state declared no fraud was detected.
When a reporter asked him this month if he regretted defaming the women, the attorneys write in the motion, Giuliani was defiant.
“No I did not. First of all, I didn’t defame them. I did not defame them,” Giuliani told New York Daily News reporter Molly-Crane Newman.
The women’s motion argues that Giuliani should be held in civil contempt and be forced to comply with court orders — which he previously agreed to — that barred him from making defamatory statements.
“Indeed, these latest statements merely regurgitate the same exact lies that Giuliani has been spreading for years,” the motion states.
Lawyers for Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Giuliani is scheduled to go on trial in New York on Jan. 16 so enforcement of the $148 million in damages can be hashed out, but he has asked for a delay so he can attend Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 and attend “pre-inauguration” events. On Wednesday, Moss and Freeman’s lawyers also asked the judge overseeing the bankruptcy enforcement trial in New York to shorten the current deadline Giuliani faces to produce items in discovery from 30 days to 2 weeks.
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“Preparing those issues for trial by January 16, 2025—including by having adequate documents in time to address them at Defendant’s deposition—will require Defendant’s prompt compliance with discovery requests. Unfortunately, Mr. Giuliani has already demonstrated his unwillingness to comply with discovery deadlines,” a lawyer for the women wrote.
There is simply “no reason to believe” that Giuliani would treat the trial in New York any differently than other proceedings, so moving the deadlines forward would make quicker work of the “inevitable issues with Defendant’s productions (or lack thereof) as they arise,” the lawyer argued.
In a statement to HuffPost on Wednesday, Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman — whose records have also been subpoenaed in the bankruptcy case — called the motion for civil contempt a “dishonest and duplicitous attack” meant to deprive Giuliani of his right to free speech.
On Wednesday afternoon, Cammarata responded to Moss and Freeman’s demand that Giuliani’s briefing schedule be moved up and asked that their demand be denied. He also accused the women of making the “improper decision” of filing their case against Giuliani in New York instead of Florida, where Giuliani also holds a residence.
Moss and Freeman’s lawyer would not be satisfied, the attorney wrote, “until Defendant at 80 years of age is destitute with no place to live.”