Fury Erupts After Rudy Giuliani Learns His Fate
For the second time in a week, Rudy Giuliani, former attorney to Donald Trump, faced contempt of court charges on Friday after calling a federal judge “bloodthirsty” in an online rant.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell of Washington, D.C., issued a stern warning, indicating that Giuliani could face jail time if he persists in spreading false information about two former Georgia election workers. These workers had previously secured a $148 million defamation award against him.
“It is shameful and outrageous that Mr. Giuliani dares to suggest that he is the one who is being treated unfairly,” Judge Howell stated in court.
The judge determined that Giuliani violated prior court orders barring him from disparaging Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. She ordered Giuliani to review trial materials and warned that further misconduct could result in imprisonment. This comes as Giuliani, reportedly facing financial difficulties, attempts to sell his branded coffee and has been instructed to turn over assets such as his vintage Mercedes to the plaintiffs.
Earlier, Giuliani criticized Howell in a January 6 statement, alleging bias.
“Judge Beryl Howell, the Obama appointee who is so bloodthirsty that she is very disappointed with the sentences of the more than 1,000 J-6 defendants (more convicted of misdemeanors than felonies), is making us wait all day for her inevitable highly prejudiced, usual, biased decision,” Giuliani posted.
He continued, “Like Judge Liman in N.Y., whose detailed opinion was reached and written before I finished my last 3 hours of testimony, this decision was already obvious from her earlier opinion and her overall pathological hatred of all things Trump. The hearing is a hypocritical waste of time and a disgusting example of Biden lawfare. Howell and Liman, if they were not so biased, would recuse themselves. Soon I will reveal my real feelings about this systemic destruction of our American system of justice.”
Judge Howell rebuked Giuliani’s remarks, calling his actions “chutzpah” during the court session.
Shortly before the hearing, Giuliani again attacked Howell on social media, calling her “bloodthirsty,” claiming she was prejudiced against him, and dismissing the session as a “hypocritical waste of time.”
Outside the courtroom, Giuliani stated, “I don’t care what she did. She is a completely farcical judge. She didn’t consider a damn thing I said. She wrote it beforehand.”
This marks another legal setback for Giuliani, who also faces criminal charges and has lost his law licenses in both D.C. and New York over his pursuit of false claims regarding Trump’s 2020 election loss.
In Friday’s session, Giuliani provided only a brief statement to confirm documents related to his personal finances.
The judge ruled Giuliani would face $200 daily fines if he failed to confirm compliance with her order to review case materials within 10 days. However, she refrained from imposing additional penalties for his recent defamatory remarks.
In December 2023, a jury awarded Moss and Freeman around $73 million in damages alongside $75 million in punitive damages.
“Mr. Giuliani started lying about Plaintiffs in December of 2020 and refused to stop after repeatedly being told that his election-rigging conspiracy theory about Plaintiffs was baseless, malicious, and dangerous,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys argued.
Giuliani’s legal team contended there was no “clear and convincing” evidence that he violated a court order through comments made on podcasts in November about alleged issues in Georgia’s ballot counting.
“Giuliani acted with the good faith belief that his comments did not violate the (judgment) and he should not be subject to contempt sanctions,” his lawyers wrote.