MOSCOW: The US Court for the District of Colombia has overruled a motion by former US president Donald Trump’s ex-attorney Rudy Giuliani to overturn a judgment requiring that he pay US$148 million for defaming poll workers in the US state of Georgia, reported Sputnik.
On Dec 15, 2023, a court ordered Giuliani to pay a fine of US$148 million for defaming the two Georgia election workers — Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Giuliani had on many occasions accused Freeman and Ross of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election without providing evidence.
“Giuliani’s renewed motion urging this Court to reverse its prior findings and rulings, and to override the jury’s considered verdict on the basis of five threadbare arguments falls well short of persuading that ‘the evidence and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn therefrom are so one-sided that reasonable men and women could not have reached a verdict in (plaintiffs’) favour’,“ the court ruling read.
Giuliani’s attorney, Joseph Sibley, said he and his client would now appeal the case to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, The Hill newspaper reported.
“We are not at all surprised the trial court did not reverse its own prior rulings and we will now proceed with an appeal to the DC Circuit where we look forward to an appellate panel reviewing the case,“ Sibley was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
In December, Giuliani, facing multimillion costs from his involvement in several lawsuits, filed for bankruptcy.
He also said that an obligation to pay the US$148 million fine would be “the civil equivalent of the death penalty” for him.
Giuliani during an interview on Steve Bannon’s podcast, called the trial a “sham” and said he was not allowed to provide evidence that proved Moss and Freeman engaged in election fraud.
