WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani is liable for defaming two Georgia election workers who were the target of vote-rigging conspiracy accusations following the 2020 U.S. presidential election, a U.S. judge in Washington ruled on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell issued the order as a sanction against Giuliani for failing to turn over electronic records sought by the two Fulton County election workers, Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, in the case.
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Howell found that Giuliani refused to comply with a process for producing records, known as discovery, and rejected the former New York mayor's argument that the election workers used the lawsuit to harass him.
"Donning a cloak of victimization may play well on a public stage to certain audiences, but in a court of law this performance has served only to subvert the normal process of discovery in a straight-forward defamation case," Howell wrote in her order.
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Lawyers for Giuliani and the election workers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Giuliani, called the ruling a "prime example of the weaponization of the justice system, where the process is the punishment."
Giuliani argued in court filings that he had sought to turn over records, but faced several obstacles, including having his phone seized by federal agents in 2021.
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