Fulton County election workers ask for 'severe' sanctions on Giuliani over defamation evidence
January 6 Hearing: Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump accuse Georgia poll workers Shaye Moss, Ruby Freeman of ballot plot
Shaye Moss spent a decade as an election worker in Fulton County. She and her mother were the subject of a video that former President Donald Trump and others said was evidence of ballot harvesting for Joe Biden. The House Committee was tasked with investigating the U.S. Capitol riot and insurrection.
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - Two Fulton County election workers are accusing former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani of failing to turn over evidence connected to their defamation lawsuit.
Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss accused Giuliani of falsely claiming that they engaged in ballot fraud during the 2020 election.
CNN reported that the mother and daughter duo's legal team disclosed that Giuliani's lawyer reached out to them "to discuss a potential negotiated resolution of issues that would resolve large portions of this litigation and otherwise give rise to Plaintiffs’ anticipated request for sanctions."
The two had already won nearly $90,000 in attorney court fees.
While their lawyer's filing on Monday says that both sides "believe they are close" to reaching a resolution. The pair is now asking the U.S. District Court judge to impose "severe" sanctions on Giuliani over his and his attorney's handling of evidence.
Wandrea ArShaye "Shaye" Moss (L), former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother Ruby Freeman (R) as Moss testifies during the fourth hearing on the January 6th investigation in the Cannon House Office Building on June 21, 2022 in Washing
"In sum, Defendant Giuliani has had eighteen months since Plaintiffs first filed this suit to take reasonable steps to preserve his electronic evidence, including more than six months since Plaintiffs first raised the question of preservation. Defendant Giuliani has had nearly three months since Plaintiffs filed the motion to compel," the new filing reads. "Defendant Giuliani’s failure to preserve his electronic records in the face of repeated reminders, and a personal awareness of his obligations, can and should be interpreted by this Court as a deliberate effort to deprive Plaintiffs of material evidence in this litigation."
The duo's attorneys claim that Giulini continues to change his explanation for not providing relevant information - including the claim that his devices were "wiped" by the Justice Department after they seized them in their investigation.
The election workers have already settled against right-wing cable news channel One America News Network over claims that they introduced suitcases of illegal ballots and committed other acts of fraud to try to alter the outcome of the presidential election in Georgia.
After narrowly losing the presidential election in Georgia, Trump made unproven claims that widespread fraud led to his loss in the state. He particularly zeroed in on Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that includes most of Atlanta.
Moss has worked for the Fulton County elections department since 2012 and supervised the absentee ballot operation during the 2020 election. Freeman, her mother, was a temporary election worker, verifying signatures on absentee ballots and preparing them to be counted and processed.
Former New York City Mayor and former personal lawyer for former President Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani talks to members of the press before he leaves the U.S. District Court on May 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. Giuliani is sued by election workers Ruby
Once their names circulated online along with allegations that they had engaged in fraud, the two women say they were subjected to intense harassment, both in person and online.
"Former President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and their allies start spreading terrible lies about my mother and me. They said we snuck ballots into the State Farm Arena in a suitcase. That’s not true. They said we lied about a water main break to kick observers out. That’s not true. They said we counted ballots multiple times to try to steal an election. That’s not true. And they said we passed around a flash drive to try to hack a machine. That’s not true," Freeman told the U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. "The thing they got so excited about, that my mom passed to me, was a ginger mint, her favorite candy. None of the lies are true. They don’t even make sense."
Last year, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced that Moss was one of five people named as recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for acting to protect democracy.
FOX 5 reached out to Giuliani for comment. His political advisor, Ted Goodman, released the following statement:
"The requests by these lawyers were deliberately overly burdensome, and sought information well beyond the scope of this case—including divorce records—in an effort to harass, intimidate and embarrass Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
It's part of a larger effort to smear and silence Mayor Giuliani for daring to ask questions, and for challenging the accepted narrative. They can't take away the fact that Giuliani is objectively one of the most effective prosecutors in American history who took down the Mafia, cleaned up New York City and comforted the nation following 9/11."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.