The Daily Populous Thursday December 21st, 2023 day edition
Authored by themessenger.com and submitted by PackmuleIT

Former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss won their bid Wednesday night to immediately enforce a $146 million judgment against Rudy Giuliani.

In the new filing, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell, a Barack Obama appointee, lifted an automatic stay of 30 days she'd imposed on the verdict that allows Freeman and Moss to try to seek the money Giuliani owes them.

Howell cites Giuliani's history as an "uncooperative litigant," his mounting debts from other court cases, and concerns that he will "conceal his assets" within the 30-day period as reasons to justify ordering the ending of the automatic stay.

The federal judge found that Moss and Freeman “correctly explain” that Giuliani has “proven himself to be an unwilling and uncooperative litigant.”

Howell also said that the former New York mayor's failure to “satisfy even more modest monetary awards entered earlier in this case” provides good cause to believe that he will seek to dissipate or conceal his assets during the 30-day period…”

Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks with reporters outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Courthouse after a verdict was reached in his defamation jury trial on December 15, 2023 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Despite Giuliani saying “there is no evidence in the record of any attempt by [him] to dissipate assets,” Howell found that his comments ignore his history of attempting to conceal and hide his assets by “failing to comply with discovery requests, including “plaintiffs’ requests for financial information.”

Moss and Freeman requested the 30-day period be dissolved for several reasons, citing that Giuliani “has demonstrated an unwillingness to comply with judicial process, including orders to pay attorney’s fees and costs,” and “appears to have no assets in the District of Columbia but substantial assets in—at least—both New York and Florida.”

They added that because he ignored “several prior court orders to reimburse attorney’s fees,” his conduct in the matter “presents “a substantial risk” that “Giuliani will find a way to dissipate those assets before Plaintiffs are able to recover.”

The filing comes shortly after a D.C. jury awarded more than $16 million in compensatory damages, $20 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress and another $75 million in punitive damages to the mother and daughter after Giuliani spread lies about the duo that they committed election fraud and inserted a USB drive into voting machines.

Earlier this week, the parties agreed to lower the amount of compensatory damages that Giuliani owes by more than $2 million, bringing the total to $145,969,000, plus post-judgment interest and costs.

Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani again on Monday, this time seeking to "permanently bar" him from "persisting in his defamatory campaign against the plaintiffs."