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Rudy Giuliani he could face hefty fines “as well as jail time” if he does holds in contempt for repeatedly falsely accusing a pair of election workers of manipulating the 2020 election results, a federal judge has warned Donald Trumpformer lawyer on Monday.
A mother-daughter pair of election workers last month accused the former New York City mayor of violation a court order it prevents him from repeating anything resembling his slanderous remarks about them.
The women asked the judge overseeing the defamation case Washington, DC to consider holding him in contempt in their last ditch effort to keep him from attacking them while they try to collect the nearly $150 million judgment against him.
Giuliani missed last week’s deadline to respond to their complaint, then pleaded with District Judge Beryl Howell for “more time.” He claimed that he could not find lawyers to represent them because they felt that the judge was “unreasonable” and “biased” against Trump, and that the outcome was “a foregone conclusion” and a “no-win proposition.”
On Monday, a judge agreed to give him another chance – given the “potential scope and severity” of the “arsenal of sanctions” he could face, including “compensatory and mandatory fines, as well as prison time.”
He now has until January 2 to file a response. Lawyers for defamed election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss have until January 7 to respond.
A hearing on the contempt motion is scheduled for January 10.
“Any further requests for an extension of time so that he can obtain counsel will be viewed with continued skepticism, as the defendant is clearly able to obtain the assistance of counsel in this matter,” Howell added.
A year ago, a jury decided Giuliani had to pay Freeman and Moss about 148 million dollars after he falsely claimed they had rigged the election results in Georgia while he waged a bogus legal campaign to overturn the results in states Trump lost.
He recently accused the women of “quadruple-counting ballots” and “leaking hard drives that we claim were used to repair” voting machines – repeating similar claims that landed him in court for defamation last year.
In his Dec. 5 filing with Howell, Giuliani argued that his statements about the women were “limited to statements I made about the trial, the appeal and what I believe to be wrongful convictions,” and insisted they were “not defamatory or purported to be defamatory.” women again.
“It is my First Amendment right to speak about the case and my defense,” he said.
He condemned the women for what he called “scorched earth litigation tactics.”
That same day, the women’s lawyers pressed a federal judge Manhattan overseeing the seizure of his assets to hold him in contempt for allegedly failing to respond to subpoenas for information about his assets.