🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Former prosecutor David Henderson warned on Sunday that former President Donald Trump should be "nervous" for his Georgia racketeering trial after the outcome of Rudy Giuliani's defamation lawsuit.
On Friday, a Washington, D.C., jury ordered Giuliani, a close ally of Trump, to pay Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss $148 million at the conclusion of a defamation lawsuit. Giuliani was previously found liable for defaming the women, who are mother and daughter, by falsely claiming they committed election fraud while counting 2020 ballots in Fulton County. In the wake of the ruling, Giuliani vowed to appeal the verdict and decried the jury's order for what he called its "absurdity."
Meanwhile, Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has been indicted in four separate cases: two brought by Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith, one by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and another from prosecutors in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is leading Georgia's criminal racketeering case against the former president, along with 18 others who are accused of attempting to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss in the state to President Joe Biden. The former president has maintained his innocence in all cases.
Giuliani is one of the co-defendants in the Georgia case as Willis charged him with 13 crimes, including violating the state's racketeering law (known as RICO), soliciting public officials to violate their oath of office, conspiring to commit forgery, and making false statements. Giuliani, a former personal lawyer to Trump, has pleaded not guilty.
Willis has requested August 5, 2024, as the trial date for Trump's case.
In an MSNBC interview on Sunday, with Ayman fill-in host Charles Coleman Jr., Henderson spoke about Giuliani's defamation case and claimed the result is a "preview" of what Trump, Giuliani and others slated to be tried in Georgia can expect next year.
"To be honest this isn't just a win, this is one of the biggest wins I've ever heard of...The real issue here is you've got a preview from the way that the jury down in Georgia is going to receive them. Giuliani, former President Trump, and anyone in their circle should be very nervous about this outcome," Henderson said. "That is an epic victory. The only thing you have to acknowledge...it does not make up for what these two women went through."
Newsweek has reached out to Trump and Giuliani via email for comment.
Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade suggested on Saturday while appearing on MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show that Giuliani will face a major roadblock in attempting to appeal his defamation ruling.
"One of the things that is a bit of an obstacle to an appeal is the idea that in Georgia, a person has to post what's known as an appeal bond," McQuade, who previously served as a U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan from 2010 to 2017 and appointed by former President Barack Obama, said.
She continued: "And the idea behind an appeal bond is that an appeal could be filed for good faith reasons, it can also be filed simply to delay the pay day, and so to avoid the latter, litigants are required to pay in advance an appeal bond which is usually something more than the amount of the judgment, so that it's there in case there is a finality in the case. I don't know that Rudy Giuliani is going to get an appeal bond, so he may not be able to do it at all."
fairness meter
About the writer
Natalie Venegas is a Weekend Reporter at Newsweek based in New York. Her focus is reporting on education, social justice ... Read more