The judge asked Giuliani’s attorney why the former mayor was making comments that conflicted with what his lawyer was arguing in court—and Giuliani’s attorney couldn’t explain it.
Topline
Ex-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani faces up to $43 million in fines in a defamation trial that began Monday—but he might have gotten himself into even further legal trouble, after the former mayor doubled down on his defamatory claims in comments to reporters outside the court.Key Facts
Giuliani is on trial for making defamatory statements against Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, as Giuliani spread false conspiracy theories linking the workers to fraud in the 2020 election.
The attorney has already been found liable for defamation—the trial will determine how much he has to pay in damages—and admitted to making defamatory statements in a pretrial court filing, with his lawyer Joe Sibley saying in court Monday that Freeman and Moss are “good people” who were clearly harmed by Giuliani’s statements.
Giuliani told reporters after the trial ended for the day Monday that he stood by his claims attacking the election workers, however, saying he “of course” doesn’t regret his comments about Freeman and Moss and claiming, “When I testify, you’ll get the whole story, and it will be definitively clear what I said was true.”
In a court filing overnight, Freeman and Moss pointed to Giuliani’s new comments, arguing that if the attorney repeats those claims when he takes the stand, “he would be in plain violation of the Court’s prior orders in this case” making clear that Giuliani’s comments were false and asking the court to warn Giuliani about his actions.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who’s overseeing the case, admonished Giuliani and Sibley in court Tuesday, multiple outlets reported, asking how Sibley could reconcile Giuliani’s statements with what he argued in court Monday and suggesting that Giuliani doubling down on the false statements “could support another defamation claim.
