Rudy Giuliani lost his appeal Monday to dismiss the $148 million verdict handed to him last year in a defamation lawsuit brought by two former Georgia election workers.
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy days after a Washington, D.C. jury ordered him to pay $148 million to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in a defamation trial in December. He had baselessly accused the two former election workers of committing fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell rejected Giuliani’s motion in an order on Monday, explaining that Giuliani did not provide enough evidence as to why his verdict should be tossed or why he should be given a new trial.
“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’] favor.”
Giuliani appealed the verdict after his bankruptcy judge allowed him to do so in February.
Attorneys for Giuliani had renewed his motion for judgment as a matter of law in February to the judge who oversaw the trial. His legal team said in court filings that the statements in question were protected under the First Amendment and insisted that they were not made with actual malice.
He was found liable for the case months before the jury convened. The jury only needed to decide how much the former New York City mayor needed to pay in damages.
The Hill has reached out to Giuliani’s attorney and his political adviser for comment.
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