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WASHINGTON — A federal judge was hearing arguments Friday in Rudy Giuliani’s second contempt of court hearing this week in the defamation case against him involving former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.
“We don’t want to be here today,” an attorney for the women, Michael Gottlieb, told U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell. “The main thing the plaintiffs want is for Mr. Giuliani to stop defaming them,” he said.
The contempt motion came after Giuliani made comments on his streaming show appearing to continue to claim the women committed fraud during the 2020 election despite a court-ordered agreement that he would not defame them anymore.
Howell told Giuliani he needed to be mindful of his platform and the power of his words.
“You’re the most famous person in this courtroom right now, you’ve got a bigger audience, you’ve got a bigger public following than anyone in this courtroom,” the judge said.
Giuliani blasted the judge before the hearing even started, complaining in a post on X that the hearing was starting late she was “making us wait all day for her inevitable highly prejudiced, usual, biased decision.”
“The hearing is a hypocritical waste of time and a disgusting example of Biden lawfare,” Giuliani wrote minutes before the proceeding began.
Giuliani has said that his comments on his show weren’t defamatory and that it “is my First Amendment right to talk about the case and my defense.”
His attorney argued in a court filing that the remarks were “vague” because he didn’t identify the women by name.
Freeman and Moss had sued Giuliani over his claims about them as he tried to help Trump, who was then president, overturn the 2020 election results. Howell found Giuliani liable in 2023 for defaming Freeman and Moss after he ignored court orders to hand over evidence.
A jury awarded them $148 million in damages, which the judge reduced to $146 million. Giuliani is appealing the verdict.
Earlier this week, a federal judge in New York found Giuliani to be in contempt of court for failing to comply with orders to turn over information about his assets to Freeman and Moss.
Giuliani had testified over two days about why he hadn’t yet handed over assets and court-ordered discovery information as part of the $146 million judgment.
One valuable asset he failed to turn over included a New York Yankees jersey autographed by Hall of Fame outfielder Joe DiMaggio, but Giuliani said last week that it was “missing.”
“I don’t know where it is, and it is hard to re-create who took it, and I am personally conducting my own investigation about this,” he said.
Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.
Victoria Ebner is a researcher with NBC News based in Washington, D.C.
Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.
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