Rudy Giuliani is liable for defaming Georgia election workers, judge rules U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell ordered Giuliani to pay the two election workers punitive damages.
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani is legally liable for defaming two Georgia election workers who became the subject of conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election that were amplified by Donald Trump in the final weeks of his presidency.
In an unsparing, 57-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell said Giuliani had flagrantly violated her orders to preserve and produce relevant evidence to the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, resulting in a “default” judgment against him. She also ordered him to pay Freeman and Moss “punitive” damages for failing to fulfill his obligations. A jury will determine the amount of those damages. ... Howell’s ruling is tied to Freeman and Moss’ separate lawsuit against Giuliani in federal court in Washington for defamation, civil conspiracy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Howell has now ordered the case to proceed to a trial purely to determine the amount of damages Giuliani will have to pay them. ... Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said in her ruling Wednesday that she considered it possible that Giuliani concluded that dodging his obligations related to the election workers’ lawsuit made sense strategically to avoid giving fodder to prosecutors or lawyers pursuing other cases.
Extreme meterologist Reed Timmer is on the Island. I don't know if he's staying. 98% of the residents have evacuated they say.
https://twitter.com/ReedTimmerAccu/status/1696664205607215490?s=20
He is trying to get his indictment in GA moved to Federal Court. He needs to show his actions in GA were only because he was acting as a Federal Officer.....he was just doing his job as Trump's Chief of staff in other words.
can find anyone covering it on twitter, just a CNN live blog mixed in with other stuff.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-indictment-2020-election-08-28-23/index.html
Wow. I thought Trump would pay the whole thing.
https://twitter.com/TamarHallerman/status/1694840991277080909?t=LGkjLgaXnxbM5KMwB7f9GA&s=19
Trump is working with a local bonding company to cover his $200,000 bail.
Charles Shaw, the CEO of Lawrenceville-based Foster Bail Bonds LLC, said he'll be posting Trump's bail
Former President Donald Trump will be using a metro Atlanta bonding company to cover the cost of his $200,000 bond in Fulton County, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has confirmed.
The news was first reported by CNN, which reported that Trump will be paying 10% toward his bond. Shaw wouldn’t confirm Trump’s fee. Shaw said rather than Trump visiting his company’s office, he will likely execute the bond while with the Republican in the jail in order to manage security concerns.
”He will have to sign the bond, as will I, which will be done probably in the confines of the jail in the intake area,” Shaw said.
There are 30 "unindicted co-conspirators" in the GA case. The Atlanta Journal Constitution believes they have identified them.
The question is why were the not indicted? Are they going to be witnesses?
Individual 1 appears to be Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.
Individual 2 is one of the 16 Republican “alternate” electors
Three of the 16 — David Shafer, State Sen. Shawn Still, and Cathy Latham — are charged in the indictment.
At least eight of the GOP electors have agreed to assist in the investigation in return for immunity from prosecution.
Individual 3 appears to be Boris Epshteyn, a member of Rudolph Giuliani’s legal team.
Individual 4 is mentioned in 13 separate overt acts and is believed to be Robert Sinners, the lead man in Georgia for Trump’s 2020 campaign.
Individual 5 is believed to be former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik
Individual 6 appears to be Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel who was in contact with Mark Meadows after the election about efforts to investigate alleged voter fraud in Arizona, Michigan and Georgia.
Individual 7 is unknown,
Individual 8, referenced 15 times in the indictment, is GA Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.
Individual 9 is apparently former Georgia GOP treasurer Joseph Brannan
Individuals 10 and 11 are believed to be Vicki Consiglio and Carolyn Fisher, who work for the Georgia Republican Party.
Individuals 12-19 are fake electors, each of whom are referenced together multiple times without much distinction.
Individual 20 is Unknown, but known to be at a Dec. 18, 2020 WH meeting with Trump. Michael Flynn, Patrick Byrne and Emily Newman were at that meeting. Byrne has denied it was him.
Individuals 21 and 22 possibly Todd Sanders or Conan Hayes
The identity of Individual 23 is not known.
Individual 24 appears to be Alex Cruce
Individual 25 appears to be Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan.
Individual 26′s unknown
Individual 27 unknown
Individual 28 appears to be Jim Penrose, a cybersecurity expert who worked with the Trump 2020 campaign.
Individual 29 is believed to be Jeffrey Lenberg, who along with Logan (Individual 25), allegedly met Misty Hampton in Coffee County
Individual 30 appears to be Stefanie Lambert, a lawyer from Michigan. The Washington Post reported on that email last year.
User FondueFerret made a very interesting post here about "federal corporation" how its used in the law. Read that first.
It made do a search on Federal Corporation and I found this which is useful.
It's a report from the Congressional Research Service. It's like Congress's legal analyst. Let's say you ran for Congress and won, and you see reference to a previous law, the CRS is where you find information about what that law actually does and says.
CRS works exclusively for the United States Congress, providing policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of party affiliation. CRS is well known for analysis that is authoritative, confidential, objective, and non-partisan. Its highest priority is to ensure that Congress has 24/7 access to the nation’s best thinking.
In 2011 the CRS was ask to explain Federal Government Corporations and they issued this report.
Trump was charged under GA's RICO law. The indictment says the 19 people indicted
" knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states."
Conspiracy Law So you have to
A. get together with people and
B. have a common plan and
C. commit two or more a more acts "of racketeering activity." (in a RICO conspiracy)
The GA RICO law lists like 40 crimes that fall under racketeering activity.
All of these are crimes in and of themselves. There's 41 charged crimes in the indictment.
The indictment also lists a bunch "overt acts." Starting on page 20 there's a bunch of overt acts listed which includes the text
This was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy
An example
If there guys are sitting around and they say we should rob a bank, that's not a conspiracy to commit bank robbery. That's guys talking smack.
However, if they they start committing overt acts to the further their plan, that's conspiracy.
A. Tom hacks into the bank's security system and steals the codes.
B. Dick steals a licence plate off a car at the airport.
C. Harry borrows his sisters car.
Tom and Dick clearly committed crimes here. A and B are clearly illegal. But it's not a crime to borrow your sister's car. So Harry did not commit a crime.
UNLESS
Harry borrows to car to lend to Tom and Dick who want to use it as the getaway car.
If Harry is already part of the conspiracy, this then becomes an overt act "in furtherance of the conspiracy" and Harry is guilty as well.
Even if Harry wasn't part of the original plan, if he knows Tom and Dick are going to use the car to rob a bank he has now become a conspirator.
Even though the specific act is not illegal in itself, it can be illegal if you do it as part of a conspiracy.
Another aspect of conspiracy law is if Tom and Dick rob the bank with two other guys Harry has never even met, they are all part of the same conspiracy. The conspirators never have to be in the same room or email thread together.
The Indictment
The Indictment lists 161 acts. Some are just overt acts. Some both a racketeering act and an overt act.
For example, Act 161 is Perjury by ROBERT DAVID CHEELEY It's described as
This was an act of racketeering activity under O.C.G.A. § 1614-3(5)(A)(xxv) and an overt act
Act 145 is Unlawful possession of ballots by several people It's illegal, but not an act of racketeering activity, because it's not part of the RICO law, but it is a violation of a different law. And it is an overt act.
So that's how you read the language like this.
**Act 154. ** On or about the 18th day of January 2021, MISTYHAMPTON allowed unindicted co- conspirators Individual 25 and Individual 29, whose identities are known to the Grand Jury, to access non-public areas of the Coffee County Board of Elections & Registration Office in Coffee County, Georgia, and facilitated their access to Dominion Voting Systems equipment This was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.
Act 155. On or about the 22nd day ofApril2021, unindicted co-conspirator Individual 28, whose identity is known to the Grand Jury, sent an email to the Chief Operations Officer of Sullivan Strickler LLC directing him to transmit all data copied from Dominion Voting Systems equipment at the Coffee County Board of Elections & Registration Office in Coffee County, Georgia, to unindicted co-conspirator Individual 30, whose identity is known to the Grand Jury, an attorney associated with SIDNEYKATHERINE POWELL and the Trump Campaign. This was an act of racketeering activity under O.C.G.A. § 16-14-3(5)(B) and an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.
80+ page indictment
Maybe 10 names
The GA grand jury is meeting today. AJC has live updates
https://www.ajc.com/news/live-updates/fulton-grand-jury-trump-investigation/
So far.
Two former Democratic state legislators who were subpoenaed to testify before a Fulton County grand jury considering whether to deliver indictments against Donald Trump and his allies were spotted Monday in the downtown Atlanta courthouse.
Questions are about Rudy Giuliani.
Former state Sen. Jen Jordan exited the Fulton Courthouse at around 11:22 a.m. The Atlanta Democrat said she spoke to the grand jury for about 40 minutes, including about hearing testimony from Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump’s one-time personal attorney, in Dec. 2020
What is at stake? The prosecutors wanted a broad protective order covering all discovery material. Trump's team wanted a narrower order
What's a protective order?
Protective orders on discovery material
generally demand that the defense employ discovery evidence only to pursue actions related to the case itself and not to release it widely and seek to try the case in the court of public opinion before it reaches a courtroom.
It's a way of ensuring that the case moves forward in an orderly fashion
This is not unique to this case.
The following is from few different twitter accounts
Did the judge agree with the prosecutors? No. Did the judge agree with Trump's lawyers? Yes. Kinda
What did the judge say?
The judge issued a protective order, but not as broad as the prosecution wanted. So she agreed with the defense's motion, but then she limited this in a number of ways.
"At this point, I'm not persuaded that the government has shown good cause to subject to the protective order all the information in this case." She adopts defense proposal.
However, the prosecutor says the vast majority of material will be sensitive, protected material which means it can't be discussed publicly by Trump or his lawyers.
Trump's team then argued for exceptions to the sensitive material and she denied most or all of them.
In one case, Trump's team wanted to allow "volunteer attorneys" or other non-retained lawyers to review discovery with Trump because of the volume. She denied this saying this language was too broad and could be taken to mean the unindicted co-conspirators could discuss the case and the discovery. She asked them to refile this.
Anyone who reviews discovery for Trump to sign a statement promising to protect info.
All of the audio recordings with witnesses are deemed sensitive.
Limitations on Trump's handling of the evidence are put in place which are pretty strict. "Trump can review the materials by himself but says counsel must review any notes Trump takes to ensure no personal identifying information is kept. He can't have access, during review, to electronic devices or copy machine." During a break for, say lunch, he must give the materials back to whoever is safeguarding them.
Trump's lawyer John Lauro, several times argued that Trump needs to be free to speak, he will be on the campaign trail after all and doesn't want this to be a contempt trap, he also mentioned this would "chill' Trump's first amendment rights.
The judge replied several times that political considerations and Trump's "day job" are not part of this case and as a criminal defendant he has accepted release conditions that he has restrictions like every other criminal defendant.
Lauro agreed Trump will follow the rules of the protective order and the Judge ended by cautioning any statements even ambiguous ones that might affect witnesses or jurors will be addressed.
I think this is the 4th post I've done about where Wagner and Prighozin and others wound up after the mutiny/coup attempt.
One big development is that Wagner troops are indeed in Belarus. In fact, they are on the border with Poland. Which has worried Poland.
Poland plans to deploy 10,000 troops to its border with Belarus
https://apnews.com/article/poland-belarus-border-troops-e4eaf9ad104063453295b22bf05ab31b
Two Belarussian helicopters were said to stray into Poland last week.
Ukraine accused Wagner troops of Psyop manuevers on the Polish borders
There six people in the Trump indictment who are "unnamed conspirators."
But folks think they can identify all 6. They are four attorneys, a Justice Department official and a political consultant
- Rudy Giuliani
- John Eastman
- Sidney Powell
- Jeffery Clark
- Kenneth Chesebro
Mike RomanBoris Epstyhn
#6 was apparently the hardest one to figure out. He was described at being from PA. Mike Roman who is from Philly, himself tweeted this picture of an Eagles Jersey https://twitter.com/mikeroman/status/1686522639144058887?s=20
It's quite possible they would be indicted in a separate or superseding indictment. There's some strategy going on here, where Trump is on the person indicted for a conspiracy.