Dem
51
GOP
49
All together now: Hahahahahahahahahahaha! As most readers will have heard by now, the jury already came back with its verdict, including damages, in the defamation case filed by election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, and the number is so big that Judge Beryl Howell gasped when she read it. Freeman got $16,171,000 and Moss got $16,998,000 for defamation, they got $20 million each for emotional distress. Then $75 million was tacked on top of that specifically to punish Guiliani for ruining the lives of two innocent people for partisan political purposes. The grand total of what he must pay them is $148,169,000.
We will have 52 "This Week in Schadenfreude" entries this year, and in none will the misfortune be as richly deserved as it is here, so we're giving Rudy the trophy right now. We hardly need to run down the long list of reasons that he's a jerk, from his use of the 9/11 tragedy as a political prop, to his shady work on the part of foreign governments, to his aggressive efforts to subvert the 2020 election, to his pursuit of underage women. His attacks on Freeman and Moss might not have been the sleaziest thing he's done, but they were sleazy in a particularly malodorous fashion, since they destroyed the lives of two public-spirited people in order to try to steal an election. And in case you need further evidence that is a schadenfreude moment, here are a couple of newspaper covers from Giuliani's hometown today:
We are merely schadenfreude amateurs; these two papers are the pros. We wonder how long the photo staff of the Daily News had to scour the wire to find a photo that works so perfectly.
On hearing the news, the first question that most people have is: Will Freeman and Moss ever see any of that money? Obviously, they won't see most of it, since Giuliani doesn't have that kind of coin, and since he's got a long line of creditors. Oh, and he's going to appeal and drag this out, of course. That said, Freeman, Moss and their attorneys have a lot of motivation here, and some useful tools. They will hire investigators and/or forensic accountants to find any assets Giuliani may have, in his name, or in the name of shell companies/other such entities. They might be able to get his tax returns; the IRS largely won't hand over such documents unless they serve as evidence of a crime, but subpoenas to Giuliani's accountants might work, or they could see any of his three ex-wives are interested in sharing what they know. For example, if Mr. & Mrs. Giuliani filed joint tax returns, the former Mrs. Giulianis will have copies and may well know about where Giuliani has real estate, bank accounts, and shell companies. Moss and Freeman will also ask the court to impound his assets and hold them until the appeal is resolved. For example, he can't hide his apartment on 66th Street that he is trying to sell for $6.1 million. Impoundment of his assets, in turn, could give Giuliani motivation to settle. Oh, and court judgments generally can't be discharged via bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, this verdict has to send shivers down the spines of the various Donald Trump co-conspirators, as it kinda sets a bar for future verdicts, in both defamation and non-defamation cases. For example, will Arthur Engoron take note of the Giuliani number as he thinks about a penalty for the much-deeper-pocketed Trump in the New York civil fraud case? How about the jury in Trump's second E. Jean Carroll case? The future juries in the Smartmatic/Dominion cases (where Giuliani will once again be a defendant)?
More broadly, this is the first "stop the steal" case to reach verdict, and the jury didn't buy ANY of what the defense was selling. In fact, the jurors were clearly outraged. It took them only 10 hours to deliberate, including settling on enormous damages. The other cases are obviously different (although let's not forget that the case(s) tried by DA Fani Willis will also go before jurors from Atlanta). In any event, Trump & Co. certainly can't feel better about their future legal prospects after seeing how the Giuliani case shook out. (Z)