Trump conspirators beware: Rudy Giuliani's loss is a reminder that the courtroom is MAGA kryptonite

[marmar]

Trump conspirators beware: Rudy Giuliani's loss is a reminder that the courtroom is MAGA kryptonite
MAGA losses pile up: As with the Fox defamation loss, Trumpists may want to rethink the "never surrender" strategy

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED AUGUST 31, 2023 6:01AM (EDT)


(Salon) Good news, New York apartment hunters! There's at least one motivated seller who may be ready to unload a Manhattan pre-war beauty for below market value. Former New York City mob prosecutor and current recipient of 13 felony charges, Rudy Giuliani, had already put his Upper East Side home on the market for $6.5 million, because, as his lawyer explained, he's "close to broke." His legal fees have been mounting rapidly, due to his central role in Donald Trump's attempted coup after losing the 2020 election. He has already gone to Mar-a-Lago to beg Trump for money, but of course, got the blow-off from the coup leader. Trump did offer to host a $100,000-a-head legal fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago for Giuliani, but once the former reality TV host is done taking his cut for food, service, and other expenses, one can guess there won't be much left for ol' Rudy.

....(snip)....

On Wednesday, federal judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that Giuliani is liable for defamation against two Georgia election workers, Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and Ruby Freeman. In the aftermath of Trump's election loss, Giuliani falsely accused these two election workers of stealing votes for President Joe Biden. He shared a video of Freeman giving Moss, who is her daugher, a piece of candy. But in Giuliani's telling, the women were "quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports, as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine." The lie turned the lives of the two women upside down. They were relentlessly harassed. Trump himself amplified the lie. They were targed by a conspiracy to force them to "confess" to stealing votes.

This federal decision is good news for these two women, who definitely deserve a break. It's very bad news, however, for the 19 people charged for a "criminal enterprise" to steal the state's 2020 presidential election, a group that includes Giuliani and Trump himself.

....(snip)....

Wednesday's decision, however, should give the coup plotters pause. It's not just that Giuliani lost. It's that his arguments in his defense, in the words of the judge, "hold more holes than Swiss cheese." Giuliani had slow-walked the requests for documents. Unsurprising, as we keep seeing from various people attached to this conspiracy, that many of them put their criminal thoughts in writing. But it meant the judge was empowered to rule for Moss and Freeman outright, leaving the jury only necessary to determine the size of the award. It's a strong sign that other alleged members of Trump's "criminal enterprise" should be very worried about their own inability to mount a real defense. They should, if they're smart, be moving as quickly as possible to asking Willis for a plea bargain. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/08/31/conspirators-beware-rudy-giulianis-loss-is-a-reminder-that-the-courtroom-is-maga-kryptonite/

[Brainfodder]

1. TRUTH is their kryptonite?

Last edited Thu Aug 31, 2023, 11:22 AM - Edit history (1)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Yes. Courts bring the truth, almost always. . . . . nt

[kentuck]

16. I think he and Trump were in competition...

...to see who could tell the biggest whopper and get away with it. Lying is a way of life for both of them.

[Hortensis]

2. Smart move. Of course, none were smart" to begin with,

which made me wonder how many might still have attorneys approved by tRump's team...

[BigOleDummy]

3. The thought occurs.....

.... just how many of these odious creatures do we need to flip? Give em a number! We'll only take the first 3 flips, better get yours fast....." hehe, think of the scramble we would see ;D

[Ponietz]

19. Tarrio's sentencing was postponed yesterday

A Plowed Boy is flipping.

[Recycle_Guru]

24. doubtful

[tulipsandroses]

4. We have entered the era of F around and find out

Those ridiculous talking points don’t work in a court room.

[NowISeetheLight]

5. Condo

I hope they can put a lein or something on his condo to pay the women FIRST before the lawyers.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. Truth.

Matters.

[Grins]

8. He KNOWINGLY got in bed with Trump.

Someone he KNEW for many years in NYC. KNEW what a shit he was.

So sad; and more proof that:

[cab67]

12. Something I dont get...

I spent my adolescence in northern New Jersey during the 1980's. We were in the New York media sphere. So when my parents relocated to the Dallas, Texas area while I was a freshman in college, and I worked at a supermarket in that area over winter break, I could only shake my head at the other workers - mostly my age or slightly older - who thought he was some sort of business whizz. It was plainly obvious to anyone following him from the NYC area that he was a scammer.

Which is why I'm aghast that anyone with whom I attended high school back then would have voted for him. And yet, based on what I've seen on Facebook, some of them did. A few of them remain steadfast devotees to this day.

They saw what the rest of us saw, and they were just as capable of recognizing the ham-handed efforts TFG was making to not look like the dishonest con-artist he clearly was (and remains).

just don't get it.

[Johonny]

21. Makes you wonder how many crimes Rudy

Covered up for powerful New Yorkers during his years in the NYC government...

[Captain Zero]

23. the Russian Mafia waltzed into NYC on Rudy's watch

While Rudy was making his name prosecuting the Italian Mob, weren't the Russian Mobsters coming into NY City at the same time?

I think he and Trump have been in bed ever since then although now Trump is hogging the covers and kicking him out.

In politics there are no coincidences, someone said.

[hibbing]

9. motivated seller...snicker

[JohnnyRingo]

10. The entire article is awesome and well written.

The wrap it up line at the bottom:

"So much so that Giuliani's lies about Moss and Freeman, which were so popular among the MAGA right, were too stupid to even bother arguing about it at trial. The only question left is how much money the two will get from the sale of that Manhattan apartment. "

[cab67]

11. ok, but....

...are Ms Moss and Ms Freeman likely to ever see a nickel from Giuliani? It's not as though Giuliani has cooperated with the judge's orders; I can see him simply ignoring the damages awarded by the jury, daring the women he defamed to garnish his assets - something that would likely cost them a lot of money. Either that, or he'll keep trying to appeal the decision for the rest of his life, preventing anything from being transferred to his victims.

I re-watched their testimony in front of the J6 Committee a month or so back on YouTube, and the people who harassed Ms Moss and Ms Freeman in 2021 aren't backing down. Some of the comments left by these douche nozzles are basically threats. They'll need every penny of whatever they get in the jury decision to live with any sense of security.

Sorry to be a pessimist here, but as much as I rejoiced at the news that a judge has held Giuliani accountable, I just don't see it working out for those who deserve a real break.

[Escurumbele]

22. I think that if Giuliani doesn't pay, his properties can be placed under a court, not sure

foreclosure, but the justice system has ways of forcing it, like they did with Manafort.

[Marcuse]

13. When the bubble breaks.

[calimary]

14. But but but ... I read somewhere that he was worth 40-million dollars!

Maybe Rudy’s actions wound up digging him a 40-million-dollar pit filled with nothing except a bad end and maybe a prison cell to go with it.

That’s some ending you’ve created for yourself, Rudy-baby.

[jcgoldie]

15. "That was a stipulation not for the purposes of truth"

… may play on truth social .. not so much in a court of law.

[SouthernDem4ever]

17. Guiliani's loss is a reminder we are a society of laws

for now.

[republianmushroom]

18. Like this article.

[Escurumbele]

20. Some DUer made a very good observation yesterday, I wish I knew who it was, but that

message should be sent to the Networks that care about the truth, and maybe tweet to some of the lawyers.

Here is what a DUer said:

Rudy Giuliani is a lawyer, he knew he would loose the case if he did not turn in the discovery information the judge had asked him to provide. WHY???

He knew that by not providing the discovery information the judge would have to rule against him by default. Was the discovery information worst than loosing the case? Now we have trump setting up a dinner at $100,000.00 a sit to help "New York's Mayor" with his legal expenses, after trump had negated any monetary help to Giuliani. trump will not give his own money to help him, but he can take the time to do a dinner and some fundraising.

Not sure if anyone remembers that a couple of years ago when Giuliani was facing some scrutiny and was told that trump would most probably throw him under the bus if trump felt Giuliani's issues would affect him, to that Giuliani answered that he had "insurance", meaning that if trump would throw him under the bus, he had the goods to get back at trump. Was that discussed when Giuliani went to mar-a-lago to ask trump for monetary help to pay his legal battles?

[Blue Owl]

25. K&R