Dem
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GOP
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In Nov. and Dec. 2020, Rudy Giuliani claimed that two Black Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, stuffed the ballot box for Joe Biden. The two received death threats and had to go into hiding. They worked as poll workers because they knew that getting the right to vote for Black people was an immense struggle that took a century and many lives. They didn't expect to be attacked on television by someone as prominent as Giuliani. Their lives were ruined. But they still had faith in the rule of law so they sued Giuliani for defamation. At first, Giuliani fought the charges, but then he ran out of money to pay his lawyers. Eventually, he admitted that he was lying and that they didn't stuff the ballot box. D.C. Federal Judge Beryl Howell found his admission sufficient to rule in favor of the two women.
The next part of the story begins today. Howell has scheduled a jury trial to determine how much Giuliani has to pay the two women. Jury selection will begin this morning in Howell's D.C. courtroom. Freeman and Moss' lawyers are asking for $43 million in compensatory damages plus punitive damages. In this kind of case, lawyers typically work on a contingency basis and get something like 30% of what they can squeeze out of the defendant, so they are highly motivated to put Giuliani through the wringer. The two women are going to testify, showing how Giuliani ruined their lives for partisan reasons. Juries tend to eat up these stories, and given the demographics of D.C., it is likely that half or more of the jury will be Black.
Giuliani is already at the brink of financial ruin. He has been trying for more than half a year to sell his lovely apartment on 66th St. in Manhattan for $6.1 million, but nobody seems to want it for that price. Sometimes a house that a celebrity lived in fetches more than comparable houses nearby, but in this case, the ghost of Giuliani may be decreasing the value.
And this trial isn't Giuliani's only problem. He has been sued by Dominion Voting Systems for his absurd claims that their machines were rigged to help Joe Biden. He has also been indicted for racketeering in Georgia. Since his long-time lawyers are no longer working for him (and, in fact, are suing him for nonpayment of overdue bills) and he can't afford new ones (assuming he could find any, since lawyers don't like working for corrupt, bankrupt people who are very likely to lose in court), he has a couple of problems. Assuming the jury in Howell's courtroom orders him to pay even $10 million, he will probably be forced into formal bankruptcy. The court-appointed receiver is then likely to drop the asking price on Giuliani's apartment to turn it into cash. Oh, and bankruptcy does not discharge the alimony payments he owes to his three ex-wives. Giuliani may end up dying in prison as a pauper. (V) hereby apologizes to (Z) for scooping him on this and thus not making this story usable Friday for "This Week in Schadenfreude."
Donald Trump ought to be scared out of his wits at this point, but that is not his style. Some of Giuliani's debts can be made to go away by filing for bankruptcy, but the Georgia RICO criminal case won't be affected by bankruptcy. The costs of a decent defense lawyer there could easily run to $300,000. One of the fake electors in Georgia, Cathy Latham, is trying to raise that amount. Back on Oct. 2, she was a bit under $22,000 and had 2,800 prayers. Now she has raised $22,324, but has picked up another 100 prayers and is at 2,907. At this rate, she might cross the magic 3,000-prayer milestone by mid-February, but probably still won't have even $23,000 (7½% of what she needs). Maybe Giuliani could also try crowd-funding to raise money for his defense, but it probably wouldn't work for him either. Trump has already made it clear that he will not cover Giuliani's legal fees.
So what will Giuliani do to reduce or eliminate his legal fees and stay out of prison in Georgia? One option that might occur to him is to flip and rat on Trump. He knows so much that Fulton County DA Fani Willis might be inclined to go easy on him and let him off with a few months of community service in exchange for hanging Trump. If the defamation case in D.C. lasts a couple of weeks and the jury awards the two women tens of millions of dollars, then it will be decision time for Giuliani (and maybe Trump). (V)