A federal judge on Friday found Rudolph W. Giuliani guilty of contempt of court for continuing to defame two Georgia women after the 2020 election.
Giuliani, 80, agreed in May to stop repeating lies about Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, a mother-daughter team of 2020 campaign workers in Fulton County, Georgia.
Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia called the agreement “clear and unambiguous.”
But in November, after Donald J. Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Giuliani repeated his accusations against the women at least four times. He can now be fined if he disobeys court orders and must also pay the costs associated with the contempt charges.
Giuliani told reporters outside the federal courthouse that Judge Howell is “bloodthirsty.”
“We know what a dishonest and disgraceful judge she is,” Giuliani said. “I shouldn't be disrespected. She shouldn't be.”
The start of 2025 has been tough for Mr. Giuliani.
It was the second time in a week that he had been insulted. On Monday, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York found Mr. Freeman and Mr. Moss guilty of contempt, accusing him of damaging their reputations and livelihoods by not cooperating with them in handing over their assets. .
The legal troubles in the two cities this week stem from allegations that he spread lies after the 2020 election that Freeman and Moss committed fraud during vote counting. No basis has been shown in the investigation.
At the time, Mr. Giuliani was Mr. Trump's personal lawyer and spun a particular narrative to help Mr. Trump overturn the results.
As a result, a $148 million judgment was obtained against him.
Judge Howell presided over the original defamation lawsuit and ultimately ruled that Trump was liable for defaming women after the 2020 election. Mr. Giuliani's repeated refusals to comply with routine discovery requests and court orders have done little to help his defense.
Mr. Giuliani was forced to pay millions of dollars to workers and filed for bankruptcy in New York. His case was eventually dismissed because he continued to ignore his obligations to the court.
Freeman and Moss quickly moved to foreclose on about $11 million worth of assets, mostly an apartment in New York and a condo in Florida.
New York Judge Louis J. Lehman, who is overseeing the enforcement of the judgment, last year ordered Mr. Giuliani to turn over $11 million in assets to a management agency run by women in Georgia. But Mr. Giuliani was also not cooperative with the process. He is scheduled to stand trial in Judge Lehman's court next week over assets he has not yet surrendered.
During Friday's several-hour hearing, Judge Howell expressed his exasperation with Mr. Giuliani.
“I have a lot of work to do outside of Mr. Giuliani and what he's doing,” she said.
At times, she expressed disbelief at arguments made by Mr. Giuliani's lawyer, Eden P. Quinton, to defend comments Mr. Giuliani made about women in November. Mr. Quinton said Mr. Giuliani had gone several months without vilifying the women again, and his comments in November were brief.
Judge Howell responded: “Since he was good for a few months, shouldn't we be excused for any bad behavior that followed?”
The judge ordered Mr. Giuliani to submit an affidavit containing his reading of all of his testimony and depositions in the original defamation suit, documenting that he had received all due process due to him. left in. She gave the affidavit a 10-day deadline and said she would charge $200 per day for each day after that deadline.
She warned Mr. Giuliani that if he continued to ignore the orders, he could be jailed.
Giuliani seemed incredulous that she was able to issue such a sweeping order without leaving the courtroom Friday, suggesting she had made up her mind before arriving. He wondered why she was so insistent on turning herself in to him. Giuliani had requested permission to appear virtually, citing his health condition.
He has two blocked coronary arteries, making it difficult for him to travel. He added that in addition to his knee pain, he also suffers from lung disease that he contracted after breathing the air near ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City while he was mayor.
The heightened threat environment after the recent attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas made travel even more risky, he said, pointing to “two premeditated attempts on my life.” But in a footnote to the filing, he cited two news reports about the same event, a 2018 rally in Paris in which he was a participant but was never reported as a target. was.
Judge Howell was not persuaded and issued an ultimatum barring Trump from attending the inauguration on January 20th.
Trump said he would issue pardons one after another. But Giuliani is not expected to be among them. The president cannot grant pardons for civil lawsuits.
