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The legal woes continue for America’s Mayor.
Former New York mayor and Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has missed the deadline for a motion arguing that he should not be held in contempt of court, according to an attorney.
The attorneys representing Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss — who Giuliani defamed following the 2020 election — filed a motion on Wednesday arguing that the former mayor be held in contempt.
“The Court … should enter an order that Mr. Giuliani is in civil contempt, and the December 12, 2024 hearing should be narrowed to focus on the appropriate civil contempt sanction for Mr. Giuliani’s violation of the consent injunction,” the filing said.
P Andrew Torrez, an attorney who runs the Law and Chaos podcast, broke down the developments in a Bluesky thread.
“Yesterday, America’s Mayor missed a court-mandated deadline to respond to a motion for contempt. Despite filing a (fraudulent) bankruptcy, Rudy has lots of lawyers. So WHY didn’t he file anything?” Torrez wrote. “As it turns out, Rudy hired new counsel in the collection action brought by Atlanta pollworkers Ruby Freeman & Shaye Moss, to whom Giuliani owes $148 million for defaming them after the 2020 election.”
The court ordered Giuliani to sell off his property and possessions to pay the women back, but even after the judgement the former Trump attorney continued to defame the women. Freeman and Moss then requested that the court hold him in contempt.
Judge Beryl Howell warned the former mayor that if he did not respond to the motion that court would treat it as him “conceding” that he was in contempt of the court. That ruling will open him up to further sanction.
According to Torrez, Giuliani is not going to enjoy the consequences of his inaction.
“Rudy blew off his legal agreement not to keep defaming Atlanta pollworkers Ruby Freeman & Shaye Moss and now is going to pay the price,” Torrez said on Bluesky.
Giuliani has a little more time to potentially save himself some hurt; Howell issued an order on Wednesday giving him until 2p.m. on Friday to explain why the court should not consider the contempt request “conceded.”
His next in-person court appearance is still scheduled for December 12.