Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Giuliani Won't Testify, Despite Pledge To 'Definitively Clear' His Name By Doing So

Rudy Giuliani on Thursday declined to testify in his defamation case in Washington — signaling an abrupt about-face for the former Donald Trump election lawyer.

As the second half of his trial kicked off this week, Giuliani had told reporters that he would “definitively clear” his name by taking the stand and proving that his lies about two Georgia election workers weren’t lies at all.

“When I testify, the whole story will be definitively clear that what I said was true,” Giuliani said on Monday, “and that, whatever happened to them — which is unfortunate about other people overreacting ― everything I said about them is true.”

So it came as a surprise days later when Giuliani, through an attorney, revealed that he wouldn’t actually testify. With no defense witnesses, the civil trial instead moved on to closing statements.

Another surprise: Harrison Floyd, one of Giuliani’s ― and former President Trump’s ― co-defendants in a separate criminal case in Georgia, seemed to have narrowly avoided violating his bond conditions Thursday by attending Giuliani’s trial.

Politico reporter Kyle Cheney said that Floyd didn’t appear to have spoken with Giuliani, which would have clearly violated his bond agreement.

Giuliani conceded in a court filing earlier this year that he’d made false statements about the two Georgia election workers who brought the defamation suit. He then refused to turn over key documents ahead of the trial, leading to a default judgment.

In this second half of the trial, jurors will decide what damages to award Ruby Freeman and daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, whom Giuliani repeatedly and baselessly accused of committing voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Freeman testified Wednesday that she’d been “terrorized” as a result of Giuliani’s lies, saying that she’d endured threatening letters and voicemails, violent and racist social media messages, and in-person confrontations.

Original Article
Source: huffpost.com
Author: Ryan Grenoble

No comments:

Post a Comment