By Lindsay Whitehurst
Two former Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani asked Monday for a court order barring him from continuing to repeat the lies he spread about them following the 2020 election.
The new lawsuit points to comments the former New York City mayor made during and after the damages trial last week, repeating the baseless conspiracy theories about Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.
Those statements “make clear that he intends to persist in his campaign of targeted defamation and harassment. It must stop," attorneys for the mother and daughter wrote in court documents.
Giuliani political adviser Ted Goodman declined to comment on the lawsuit, but pointed to his other accomplishments, including his celebrated leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Giuliani has previously acknowledged in court documents that he made public comments falsely claiming Freeman and Moss committed ballot fraud as he fought to keep fellow Republican Donald Trump in the White House after Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
Those claims led to racist threats and intense harassment that forced the mother and daughter to flee their homes and fear for their lives, they said in emotional testimony last week. The trial was held to determine the amount of damages after a judge found he was liable for defaming them.
Giuliani has vowed to appeal the verdict, and it is not clear whether he would be able to pay the staggering damages. He's shown signs of financial strain as he defends himself against costly lawsuits and investigations stemming from his representation of former president Donald Trump.
He is also among 19 people charged in Georgia in the case accusing Trump and his Republican allies of working to subvert the state’s 2020 election results. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty and has characterized the case as politically motivated.
House Republicans made post-midnight changes to their sweeping debt ceiling package to win over holdouts, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy pushed ahead Wednesday with plans to launch debate and round up support from his slim majority for a vote this week.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol opened his state visit to Washington on Tuesday by touring a NASA facility with Vice President Kamala Harris as the Biden administration looks to deepen ties with a close ally that it sees as only growing in importance in an increasingly complicated Indo-Pacific.
Colorado is set to become the first state to sign a ‘right to repair’ law allowing farmers to fix their own equipment with a bill signing Tuesday afternoon by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
President Joe Biden has formally announced he’s seeking reelection.
Three Tennessee lawmakers who became Democratic heroes for facing expulsion after participating in gun control protests visited the White House on Monday, describing themselves as “representatives of a movement" that is demanding greater restrictions on firearms to save lives.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is hurtling toward one of the most consequential weeks of the new House Republican majority as he labors to pass a partisan package that would raise the nation's debt limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for steep cuts that some in his own party oppose.
A former advice columnist’s nearly 30-year-old rape claim against Donald Trump has gone to trial.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally announced that he is running for reelection in 2024, asking voters to give him more time to “finish this job” he began when he was sworn into office and to set aside their concerns about extending the run of America’s oldest president for another four years.
The sheriff's office in Carroll County, northeast of Louisville, has hired former Louisville police officer Myles Cosgrove, who fatally shot Taylor in a March 2020 drug raid that used a faulty warrant to break through her door.
The United States has begun facilitating the departure of private U.S. citizens who want to leave Sudan, according to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
