Rudy Giuliani Will Face Critical 'Obstacle' to Defamation Appeal—Attorney

Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade suggested on Saturday that Rudy Giuliani will face a major roadblock in attempting to appeal his defamation ruling in Georgia.

On Friday, a Washington, D.C., jury ordered Giuliani to pay $148 million to the mother and daughter pair, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, two Georgia election workers who had brought a civil suit against the former New York City mayor for defamation. In his capacity as an attorney helping to push former President Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, Giuliani had singled out the two women and amplified baseless conspiracies alleging that they had committed voter fraud. The claims, the suit explained, had inundated Freeman and Moss with threats from Trump supporters, upending their lives and making them fear for their safety.

The total payment ordered by the jury breaks down as follows: between $16 and $17 million each to Freeman and Shaye in compensatory damages, $20 million each for the intentional infliction of emotional distress, and a further $75 million in punitive damages. In the wake of the ruling, Giuliani, vowing to appeal the verdict, said that he did not "regret a damn thing" and decried the jury's order for what he called its "absurdity."

Giuliani, however, did seemingly indicate he regretted at least one aspect of the case, answering "of course" after a reporter asked if he had "any regrets" about "the comments" Freeman and Moss received following his accusations.

He described the threats and harassment that the mother and daughter pair endured as "abominable" and "deplorable," while insisting he had "nothing to do with" it.

During a Saturday appearance on MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show, 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, discussed the ruling and put forward what she argued could be an "obstacle" for Giuliani's hopes of getting an appeal.

"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," she said. "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."

McQuade continued, noting that there is a potential option for Giuliani to petition the court and argue that the amount he has been ordered to pay is excessive. Even if this was successful, however, she said that the former mayor would still be on the hook for "tens of millions of dollars."

Newsweek reached out to representatives for Giuliani via email for comment.