The legal woes continue for America's Mayor.
Former New York City mayor and Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has missed the deadline for responding to a motion arguing that he should be held in contempt of court.
Last month, attorneys representing Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss — who Giuliani defamed in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election — asked a federal judge in Washington, DC to hold him contempt for breaching a court order that prohibits him from falsely claiming that they manipulated election results.
Judge Beryl Howell said his lack of response “will be treated as conceding that motion.”
He had until December 2 to reply. He didn’t.
On Wednesday, attorneys for the women urged the judge to hold him in contempt, noting that he was “fully aware” of the charge against him at a related federal court hearing in New York, where a federal judge is overseeing the transfer of his property to the women in the wake of last year’s massive $148 million defamation verdict.
Judge Howell offered to extend his deadline to respond by 2 p.m. on Friday.
Giuliani himself then sent a letter to the judge — two days after blowing the initial deadline — asking for a 30-day extension, because he needs “more time” to find an attorney.
He says four attorneys have turned him down.
Giuliani told the judge that his prospective attorneys believe she is “unreasonable” and “biased” against Trump, and that an outcome is a “foregone conclusion” and a “no-win proposition.”
Howell wasn’t buying it.
She also dinged him for filing his letter without a signature, and “for failure to comply with applicable procedural rules, since even defendants without any legal training and proceeding pro se are required to comply with procedural rules, and this defendant, though pro se, has previously been a practicing attorney with a history of significant government legal positions.”
On recent livestreams, Giuliani accused the women of “quadruple counting the ballots” and “passing hard drives that we maintain were used to fix the machine” during the 2020 presidential election — claims that landed him in a trial court for defamation last year.
His statements “repeat the exact same lies for which [he] has already been held liable, and which he agreed to be bound by court order to stop repeating,” attorney Michael Gottlieb wrote in a court filing in Washington, DC on November 20.
A court order in the wake of his defamation verdict prohibits Giuliani “from publishing, causing others to publish, and/or assisting in others’ publication of … any statements that suggest that Plaintiffs, whether mentioned directly, indirectly, or by implication, engaged in wrong-doing in connection with the 2020 presidential election,” including the same statements that were found to be defamatory.
He is also prohibited from making “other statements conveying the same defamatory meaning,” according to Judge Howell’s order from December 2023.
Giuliani is now “brazenly violating” those terms, according to Gottlieb.
He will have until 2 p.m. Friday to explain why he believes he should not be held in contempt.
His next in-person court appearance stemming from the defamation case is scheduled for December 12.
The Independent has requested comment from a spokesperson for Giuliani.
