And how much help do you see Trump offering Rudy G. or Mike Lindell? Both hitting the shoals seems to not have dislodged Trump from a singular focus on himself and his campaign, his third, for the White House. Yes, Trump fronted a $100,000 a plate fundraiser, once, with Rudy the claimed beneficiary, but what funds were raised, and how was that at all helpful to Rudy?
The strategy seems to be use defamation litigation, deep pocketing, to quell folks from allaying with Trump during the course of which they say stupid libelous things due to a lack of self restraint in the moment - or that is how it seems. Intimidate others, or is the verb "deter?" "Deter" by example when the $$ hit the fan. While I have not counted a single vote, either way, and cannot say as a known fact that there was or was not voter fraud, and do not allege anything either way, I notice that the urge to show it happened without rock solid evidence seems a trap for the unwary. I cannot say Trump and Rudy were wrong, that the election was or was not stolen, I don't know, but the Georgia recording of Trump, and now the Michigan recording together shade my outlook; where a presumption of regularity governs absent contrary sound evidence which so far seems lacking.
Consider this tweet. Let it replay a few times since it is short but says much if you think it over. In case it gets removed, the transcript is:
@jrpsaki: You sued Giuliani successfully, why not sue Trump too? Gottlieb: "I can't really speak to that in a televised interview... But if people continue to go out on TV and repeat these lies that we have demonstrated to be false, then they can expect to hear from us."
Who was speaking in that tweet - a big firm's lawyer who delivered closing argument in the Rudy G. defamation litigation where, after closing argument a jury deliberated and came back with $148 million as its number for the two election workers. (That lawyer must have closed well.) That lawyer is Michael Gottlieb. From a big DC firm (co-headquartered in NYC) calling itself "Willkie" on its https://www.willkie.com/ website where you can find the firm touts:
1200
Lawyers
6
Countries
13
Offices
A multi-lawyer elite litigation team against Rudy, who himself faced off with one lawyer.
The firm touts its mojo in running Rudy aground via its multi-lawyer litigation team - two senior partners assisted by six of the firm's associates - a team which used a 20 discovery motions and thousands of hours as a steamroller to crush Rudy and his one lawyer - costing the two election workers not a penny for such representation:
August 30, 2023
A Willkie pro bono team led by partners Michael Gottlieb and Meryl Governski, along with co-counsel at Protect Democracy and Dubose Miller LLC, won a landmark victory today against Rudy Giuliani in a federal defamation suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Fulton County Georgia election workers Wandrea ArShaye (Shaye) Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman.
In an August 30 opinion, Judge Howell granted Willkie’s motion for sanctions for Mr. Giuliani’s “willful discovery misconduct” and ordered the most drastic sanction: default judgment on all claims—defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy—stemming from statements he made about Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss to intentionally undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Willkie, along with co-counsel, filed the lawsuit in December 2021, and has devoted thousands of hours to litigating the matter, including filing more than 20 discovery-related motions. The order leaves outstanding only the amount of damages Mr. Giuliani owes, including in the form of punitive damages, which will be determined at a trial in the coming months.
Today’s decision comes after nearly two years of litigation. The ruling is a significant victory and reaffirms what the Willkie team, co-counsel, and their clients have always known to be true: that Ms. Moss and Ms. Freeman honorably performed their civic duties in the 2020 presidential election in full compliance with the law and that the allegations of election fraud Rudy Giuliani made against them have been false since day one.Partner Michael Gottlieb was interviewed on CNN, MSNBC and NPR, and partner Meryl Governski appeared on NewsNation and MSNBC, respectively, to discuss the victory. This important win was also covered by other global media organizations, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters, Politico, Associated Press and more.
Ms. Moss and Ms. Freeman are represented by a pro bono Willkie team that includes partners Michael Gottlieb and Meryl Governski, and associates M. Annie Houghton-Larsen, J. Tyler Knoblett, Tim Ryan, Logan Kenney, Maggie MacCurdy and Perri Haser. Co-counsel on the case is Protect Democracy and Von DuBose of DuBose Miller.
Access Michael Gottlieb’s interviews here: CNN, MSNBC, NPR
Watch Meryl Governski’s interviews here: NewsNation, MSNBC
Rudy was deep pocketed -
Pro bono publico means - for the benefit of the public - i.e., no fee charged.
That Rudy was deep pocketed has already been shown, but is nonetheless reemphasized - thousands of hours put into the case by 8 big firm lawyers + co-counsel - producing 20 discovery motions, which is unusually substantial discovery in a case of two individuals, not persons of wealth, suing on a defamation claim where there is an online video of a defendant saying culpable things.
Moreover, you may note that Rudy has substantial unpaid taxes - as Hunter Biden did - but Hunter has been paid current by credit from a Hollywood millionaire lawyer, Kevin Morris, something readers can independently research. Republicans suggest the Biden son should be treated via special prosecutor and criminal charges; while to them, Rudy is Rudy, with no hostile animus. Different strokes for different folks.
Mention of Hunter Biden is interesting because there are two NY Post items, (yes Rupert Murdoch, so in citing them and quoting a bit Crabgrass is noting what's online, without any representation of credibility in the sources):
Rudy Giuliani’s lawyers say $148M defamation ruling would ‘end’ him: ‘Civil equivalent of the death penalty’ stating:
Giuliani’s attorney said Thursday in the Washington, DC, courtroom that an initial $43 million in damages sought by Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Andrea “Shaye” Moss, would be “the civil equivalent of the death penalty.”
“If you award them what they are asking for, it will be the end of Mr. Giuliani,” attorney Joe Sibley said of his 79-year-old client, according to multiple reports.
After two days of deliberations, a DC jury ended up awarding the pair $75 million in punitive damages and $20 million to both individually for emotional distress.
Moss was also given just under $17 million for defamation, while Freeman got nearly $16.2 million.
Now, “America’s mayor,” who is fending off other attempts to drain his finances through million-dollar lawsuits that allege he stiffed payments to attorneys and accountants, has promised to appeal the decision, pointing to “the absurdity of the number” awarded to the plaintiffs.
[...] He also claimed the suit was “part of the Biden offensive that started some time ago to see what they can do about intimidating Trump lawyers, Trump supporters,” adding that one of the attorneys representing Freeman and Moss, Mike Gottlieb, was “a good friend of Hunter Biden.”
Gottlieb, a former associate White House counsel for President Barack Obama, served at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner at the same time as the then-second son and is included in email exchanges on his abandoned laptop discussing a potential deal with a Romanian oligarch.
That linked Aug. 2022 NY Post item stated in part:
Hunter Biden began working for Gabriel Popoviciu [a Romanian real estate tycoon accused of corruption ]in the spring of 2015, insiders say. The Romanian wanted Hunter Biden’s help fighting a conviction stemming from his purchase of a 550-acre parcel of government-owned land for a steep discount.
Emails on the abandoned laptop show Hunter handled the businessman via his law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.
A person familiar with the arrangements told The Post the president’s son had a side pocket agreement directly with Popoviciu that raked in “millions” for himself and associates.
Popoviciu also hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to help the embattled businessman avoid jail time. Freeh called Hunter Biden directly in July 2015, just two hours before Hunter was scheduled to meet with his dad at the Naval Observatory — the vice-president’s official residence — emails from the laptop show. It’s unclear what was discussed on the call.
“Does this still work for you,” Hunter Biden’s office manager Joan Peugh said in a July 29 email titled “12:00pm call with Louis Freeh.”
“I’m going to yoga at 5:15 if you are done with your dad in time,” she offered.
Biden family confidante Mark Gitenstein, a longtime donor to the president who worked on the Obama/Biden transition team in 2008 was also enlisted in the Popoviciu effort, a search of the laptop shows.
Gitenstein, who served as ambassador to the country from 2009 to 2012, and is now the US Ambassador to the European Union, credited his relationship with Joe Biden for the prestigious Romania posting, emails show.
He has donated more than $15,000 to Joe Biden’s various campaigns, stretching back to the mid 1990s. In the 1980s he worked as Chief Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1981 to 1989 — a period when Joe Biden was the top Democratic member.
“I was so taken by the Biden ‘family’ I ended up working for them for 13 years. And in some respects I feel like I have never left,” he said in a June 2015 Facebook post, eulogizing Beau Biden, who had recently died of brain cancer.
When Romanian President Klaus Iohannis came to Washington D.C. in September 2015, Gitenstein helped facilitate a meeting between the then-Vice President Biden and the Romanian leader.
Hunter Biden met with Gitenstein four times in 2015 and 2016, with at least some of the meetings coming after he began working for Popoviciu, frequently huddling with the ambassador at the Four Seasons in Washington D.C., according to his calendar.
At the request of Eric Schwerin, the president of Hunter Biden’s investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, Gitenstein put out feelers to see if a possible change to Romanian law could help Popoviciu — reaching out to his diplomatic successor, Hans Klemm and other embassy staff.
“Just checked with folks in Romania,” Gitenstein wrote to Hunter Biden and Schwerin on Jun 9, 2016. “Looks like this will not help your client because it is not retroactive,” he added on the June 16th.
“Thanks, Mark. We’ll keep this to ourselves,” Schwerin wrote back to him after receiving the intel.
A Gitenstein representative said the ambassador “did not represent Popoviciu, nor did he act on his behalf.”
Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin, and Boies Schiller Flexner LLP did not respond to request for comment from The Post. Gottlieb — who now works as a Partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher also did not respond to request for comment from The Post.
Hunter flew to Romania on an overnight British Airways flight on Nov. 15, 2016, for a two day trip to press Popoviciu’s case with the country’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) — and was set to have “breakfast with dad” at Joe Biden’s official residence at the US Naval Observatory just two days after his return.
Hunter Biden also enlisted Klemm, a career diplomat, with the help of Michael Gottlieb, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, where Hunter was also serving as “of counsel.” When Hunter visited Romania, Gottlieb, who was pals with the ambassador, set up a meeting between Hunter, himself, Klemm and Klemm’s wife Mari, emails show.
“It would be just you and me for meeting — casual over lunch dinner- just to inform him of the project we are working on- no asks involved,” Hunter Bien said to Gottlieb in a Nov 11 2015 email — a reference to the Popoviciu case.
On behalf of Hunter Biden, Gottlieb pressed Klemm to broker a meeting with the DNA.
“I have reached out to Klemm and asked him to help us broker the meeting,” Gottlieb said in a May 17, 2016 email to Hunter Biden and other business partners. “The Embassy has reached out to DNA to request the meeting. The first question we got back from DNA (within minutes) was whether this was about the Popoviciu case,” he wrote to them all again the next day.
DNA ultimately declined to meet with Hunter Biden and Gottlieb “citing Romanian regulations that prohibit them from meeting to discuss a pending/ongoing case,” Gottlieb said in a May 26 email.
Reps for Popoviciu’s former legal team insisted the reach out to US officials was kosher.
“It is standard and preferred protocol for US lawyers traveling to a foreign country to meet with a foreign government to reach out in advance to the US embassy to seek assistance and advice, and to ensure that the embassy is informed of their activities. In fact, the failure to do so would be considered inappropriate by embassies around the world,” a spokesman said.
[...] Despite Hunter’s efforts, Popoviciu was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison, but fled and has been living as an outlaw in the England, while the Romanian government continues to try and extradite him back to face justice. He did not respond to request for comment from The Post.
Hunter Biden is currently facing a sprawling federal investigation covering potential taxes violations and money laundering. Experts previously told The Post Hunter Biden’s failure to register as a foreign agent, was almost certainly a violation of the federal Foreign Agent Registration Act.
“Professionals with the State Departments Foreign Services have the responsibility to represent the interests of the United States government and the America people, not the financial interests of the grifter son of a sitting Vice President,” Sen Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) told The Post.
The excerpt is long to show enough context to determine that there was no statement in that older item of any particular friendship between Hunter Biden and Gottlieb. They worked at the same firm, and probably each billed time on whatever collaboration was done for the Romanian client, if any beyond what the quote says, which likely was billed to the client for both acting as noted. The firm's lead letterhead lawyer, Boies, may be remembered as Al Gore's lawyer per the Florida recount litigation, Gore v. Bush.
It looks from all detail to be a Democratic Party leaning firm, if politicized one way or the other. Also, it is unclear if the second NY Post item was suggesting Hunter Biden was wrongful in not registering as a foreign agent re the Romanian client of the firm. If so, such a registration question might touch the firm itself, possibly Gottlieb. Because of the uncertainty, the older item, like the friendship assertion quoted in the Dec. 2023 item as stated by an individual, does not prove "friendship" rather than collaberation alone, and does not touch upon any foreign agent liability suggestion, beyond Hunter Biden.
In characterizing the entire Willkie lawyer bunch as "pro bono" that would mean they take no contingency fee from whatever gets bone picked from Rudy's bankruptcy estate, with it unclear whether the Willkie firm will participate in the bankruptcy, because co-council might handle that alone:
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| photo source: https://www.law.com/ |
BOTTOM LINE: Rudy's an eighty years old and now a ruined man. What, seriously, has that gained for America? Or for Americans? A mess with us and get dragged over the rocks message might or might not be good for the nation. But that Twitter thing surely seems to give such a message. viewed in full context. Opinions can differ.
___________UPDATE__________
This might not be the only on-video statement Giuliani made inappropriately, nor might the report show all of a sequence, but it suffices to show his problem.
Presumably the ballot processing video was from surveillance cameras in the counting room, so that the plaintiffs' lawyers had no cause to sue for improper taking of an image, but when Rudy used the footage the normal practice is to blur faces and not expressly identify employee data, or get signed releases to display recognizable images. If the surveillance video was obtained via proper freedom of information methods, in particular, release of the ballot room scene would not be actionable.
So there would be no other parties who could have been liable where Rudy could claim selective targeting. He was deliberate, intentional, and certainly with reckless disregard for the truth in not saying it looked like possibly negligent practices. He was more pejorative - he went further - saying fraud in embellished terminology.
Thus while private persons were suing, the New York Times v. Sullivan standard for public newsworthy individuals, the standard of "actual malice," (including reckless disregard for the truth), seems to have been met.
Those are points worth noting, that Rudy was the only actionable party, and the lawyers did not miss any additional party against whom a judgment and recovery would have been likely, who were not sued.
Clearly the self-touted crackerjack elite multi-member plaintiffs' thousands of hours litigation team could suggest discovery effort - all twenty motions - was not excessive - after all the judge allowed it, but judges do get reversed at times on appeal, and the Stefanik letter raises interesting points.
Also, the "almost schizophrenic" public characterization of DOJ exercise of Jan 6 charging discretion seems to arguably be a "red line crossing" - and certainly can be viewed as gratuitous and unhelpful, i.e., arguably injudicious, while presiding over at least a part of the ongoing Jan 6 litigation.
Again, the bottom line is Rudy is a ruined man, and what benefit, if any, is that to the nation where Trump and Biden will likely be on the 2024 ballot, hence, where Trump and Biden should be the focus of attention - not broken allies of either such as Rudy or the My Pillow guy? If Trump keeps bleating about rigged election, go after Trump, not the easier low hanging fruit.
Lions going after the weaker members of the antelope herd is a fact of nature. But is it good human nature? In fairness, that thought can be applied against what Rudy did, as well as to teamed up "pro bono publico" super lawyers doing a take-down.
Rudy indisputably created a focus on himself.
There are nuances.