POLITICS, ELECTIONS

Giuliani Claims the Right to Defame

Vanessa Gallman
2 min readJul 26, 2023

He admits lying about Georgia election workers who faced threats

Illustration by DonkeyHotey on Fllickr

How big must your sense of entitlement be to admit in court that you lied about innocent people committing a crime yet argue it was your right and that you are not responsible for the pain you caused?

Rudy Giuliani, who promoted President Trump’s Big Lie about a stolen election, made such a court filing this week in the case of the mother and daughter election workers he defamed, resulting in threats that made their lives unsafe.

The former New York mayor and prosecutor made the admission to avoid turning over emails and documents requested by Shaye Moss, a Georgia election worker and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who volunteered to help on election night.

They did nothing wrong and the election was fair, according to Georgia election officials and the Trump Justice Department. This is a rare lawsuit from election workers — many of whom were targeted around the country in 2020. Moss and Freeman have already settled a related case with OAN, a conservative media outlet.

While admitting his remarks “carry meaning that is defamatory per se,” Giuliani argues that his accusations were “constitutionally protected” under the First Amendment. He also refused to acknowledge…

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Vanessa Gallman

Experienced journalist, educator and retired opinion-page editor with occasional musings