Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everybody saw this coming.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Cole is on a roll !

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

T R E 4 5 O N

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Republicans in disarray!

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Rudy Giuliani Is Learning The Eternal Truth: #ETTD

Rudy Giuliani Is Learning The Eternal Truth: #ETTD

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You may recall that two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, had sued Giuliani for the harms they endured after he falsely declared Freeman and Moss had tampered with ballots in 2020.

The trial that has just concluded was not about whether Giuliani had done the deed.  He both admitted to the facts in question and so completely failed to meet his obligations in the discovery phase of the trial, which led the judge in the case to render a default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. This trial was all about damages:  how much America’s embarrassment owed for his sins.

This afternoon, after less than two full days of deliberation, the jury has given its answer:  Giuliani owes $148 million to Moss and Freeman — $33 million in direct damages for the defamation; $40 million for emotional harm, and $75 million in punitive damages.

As Josh Kovensky writes at Talking Points Memo, Rudy made it easy for the jury:

It’s a stunning damages amount, one which reflects not only the vicious campaign of harassment that Giuliani unleashed by falsely claiming that a video showed the two tampering with ballots at a Georgia voting center, but the extent to which Trump’s consigliere went out of his way to make things as bad as possible for himself. Giuliani earned Howell’s wrath throughout the pre-trial phase by repeatedly ignoring evidence requests from Freeman and Moss’ attorneys. During the trial itself, Giuliani stood outside the courtroom and repeated the claims which led to the defamation claim in the first place, further enraging the judge.

Oh–and Giuliani hasn’t got the lolly. Not even close. Odds are he’ll have to make a whole bunch of cash between now and then to merely die broke.

Rudy Giuliani Is Learning The Eternal Truth: #ETTD

Oh–and in the biggest surprise since the dog bit the man–his former client does not have his back, as Kovensky reminds us with this chef’s kiss:

Giuliani reportedly begged Trump himself for cash over the summer to cover his legal bills, but the former president refused.

Yup.

Everything Trump Touches Dies.

Image: David Teniers, Two beggars on the outskirts of a village, between 1660 and 1670.

Reader Interactions

131Comments

  2. 2.

    piratedan

    the only thing I believe to be true is that all of the lawyers will get paid before the ladies do…

    It would be nice if these judgements allowed assets to be seized and frozen instead of the likelihood of appeals that are sure to follow.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’ve been wondering why this case wasn’t brought against trump. This makes it sound like I should’ve added “yet”

    Mueller, She Wrote @MuellerSheWrote 6m

    NEW: Ruby Freeman tells reporters that others defamed them, and that’s “tomorrow’s work”. 

    Does the judgement against Rudi make a case against trump stronger? Some kind of precedent?

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    I hope the court seizes all of his assets, empties his bank accounts, and he can go be a Walmart greeter.

  8. 8.

    MattF

    TFG doesn’t have that kind of money. Where ‘that kind’ means ‘that much’ and ‘that sort’. Maybe Rudy’s Saudi pals could help out.

  9. 9.

    TBone

    Maga tears deliciousness. I have the Gritty on a riding mower t-shirt 😎 and just rewatched Christine Nangle for extra schadenfreude.  Happy Friday!

  10. 10.

    OlFroth

    The people who sent the e-mails, made the phone calls, and showed up at Freeman and Moss’ homes are guilty of criminal offenses.  Harassment by communication or address, threats of physical violence against public officials, etc.  Rudy is now impoverished, but those who acted on his words should face charges once they’re identified.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    Has anyone squandered so much unearned goodwill so thoroughly? Maybe Trump will let him live in a cabana hut.

    Die broke and mad, Rudy.

  12. 12.

    NorthLeft

    As a spokesman for Trump once said after the 2012 election and he fled from Romney’s wake,

    ”Mr. Trump does not associate with losers.”

    Bye bye Rudy.

  13. 13.

    Anotherlurker

    One of Rudy’s tricks as mayor was to round up homeless and ship them out of state.  I hope he experiences the treatment that he gleefully meted out to vulnerable people.

  14. 14.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Suzanne: ​
     

    I hope the court seizes all of his assets, empties his bank accounts, and he can go be a Walmart greeter.

    Which would have the fringe benefit of scaring a few people away from whatever Wal-Mart he was serving as a greeter at.

  15. 15.

    Joseph Patrick Lurker

    I never bought into the idiotic claim that Rudy was America’s mayor, but he’s definitely America’s scumbag.

  16. 16.

    Emily B.

    Thing is, Rudy’s just going to try to hire himself out for more evil deeds in order to get out of the financial hole. (Although who would hire him?)

  18. 18.

    Leto

    @Suzanne: Considering he doesn’t have a pot to piss in, as soon as he gets a pot I hope the court seizes it. If he dies a penny-less pauper, that’s still too fucking good. Fuck Ghouliani, and the rest of the shitbags.

  19. 19.

    Scout211

    Is something wrong with David’s Bluesky post? I keep getting a Cloudflare error message. But only on that post.  But then I had to close my browser to get to any other thread. Is it just me?

  20. 20.

    Suzanne

    @Leto: Agreed.

    Im just astonished, tho. Like, Alex Jones owes his victims a shit ton of money, and yet he still lives somewhere, has a car, flies on planes presumably. Did he stash money away? It sucks.

  21. 21.

    Sloegin

    $75m punitive is quite the sum for being an obstinate ass during the entire legal proceeding.

    You love to see it.

  22. 22.

    BC in Illinois

    I have a suggestion for a humane solution to the Rudy Giuliana impoverishment problem.

    Take away all of his money, to bring some measure of justice to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Sell everything he has hidden . . .

    BUT, leave him an income to live on.

    I would peg it at the crazification percentage — 27%. Twenty seven percent of the American people live on $39,824.00 or less.

    He would feel himself ill-used, but it’s not poverty. It’s just life, Mr. G.

  24. 24.

    eclare

    Rudy could have stayed retired, collected whatever pensions he has, gone on the wingnut speaker circuit, but no, he gave all that up to be close to power.  It reminds me of the next to last scene in Fargo.  Was it worth it?

  25. 25.

    OlFroth

    The only punishment a wealthy person understands, is the punishment that makes him a poor person.

  27. 27.

    mvr

    There will be a lot of “how far he has fallen” news stories, but the truth is he was always an asshole.

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    @Suzanne: Riches to rags seems very rare in the 21st century. Parachutes galore, I suppose.

    ETA “I’m putting you under house arrest.”
    “Okay your honor, my house happens to have seventeen bathrooms, so all good. Can I use my lake?”

  32. 32.

    Leto

    @Suzanne: ​ this reporting was from just after Thanksgiving:
    Sandy Hook families offer to settle Alex Jones’ $1.5 billion legal debt for at least $85 million

    Sandy Hook families who won nearly $1.5 billion in legal judgments against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for calling the 2012 Connecticut school shooting a hoax have offered to settle that debt for only pennies on the dollar — at least $85 million over 10 years.

    The offer was made in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case in Houston last week. In a legal filing, lawyers for the families said they believed the proposal was a viable way to help resolve the bankruptcy reorganization cases of both Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems.

    But in the sharply worded document, the attorneys continued to accuse the Infowars host of failing to curb his personal spending and “extravagant lifestyle,” failing to preserve the value of his holdings, refusing to sell assets and failing to produce certain financial documents.

    “Jones has failed in every way to serve as the fiduciary mandated by the Bankruptcy Code in exchange for the breathing spell he has enjoyed for almost a year. His time is up,” lawyers for the Sandy Hook families wrote.

    The families’ lawyers offered Jones two options: either liquidate his estate and give the proceeds to creditors, or pay them at least $8.5 million a year for 10 years — plus 50% of any income over $9 million per year.

    During a court hearing in Houston, Jones’ personal bankruptcy lawyer, Vickie Driver, suggested Monday that the $85 million, 10-year settlement offer was too high and unrealistic for Jones to pay.

    “There are no financials that will ever show that Mr. Jones ever made that … in 10 years,” she said.

    In a new bankruptcy plan filed on Nov. 18, Free Speech Systems said it could afford to pay creditors about $4 million a year, down from an estimate earlier this year of $7 million to $10 million annually. The company said it expected to make about $19.2 million next year from selling the dietary supplements, clothing and other merchandise Jones promotes on his shows, while operating expenses including salaries would total about $14.3 million.

    Personally, Jones listed about $13 million in total assets in his most recent financial statements filed with the bankruptcy court, including about $856,000 in various bank accounts.

    Under the bankruptcy case orders, Jones had been receiving a salary of $20,000 every two weeks, or $520,000 a year. But this month, a court-appointed restructuring officer upped Jones’ pay to about $57,700 biweekly, or $1.5 million a year, saying he has been “grossly” underpaid for how vital he is to the media company.

    Apologies for pasting so much, but that last paragraph… just absolutely fuck that restructuring officer. If you can basically pay that fucker 2x the pay, he has the money to pay the families. Motherfucker shouldn’t receive a damn penny for the next 23 lifetimes.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Suzanne:

    @Leto:

    @trollhattan:

    Bankruptcy separates past assets from future income, as of the date the petition is filed.  Even if 100% of his past assets were paid to creditors, as long as Jones can earn millions for his insanity, he can’t be impoverished.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @TheronWare:

    I’ve been wondering about the dearth of “but her emails” type stories about Trump.  We’re into primary season.  Isn’t the NYT concerned about national security anymore? Has Comey retired from writing op/eds?

  37. 37.

    cain

    @Suzanne: Seriously, do you really want to see this guys face at a walmart trying to greet you? The people at walmart is his people anyways – within 6 months he’ll have a grift operation going.

  39. 39.

    trollhattan

    Sharing this story because so many things combine that I think it needs to go back to the scriptwriters. Ahem  Tennessee, a tornado, a trailer, some surprisingly lucky weirdos, and the Lord!

    Engage

    A four-month-old baby has been found alive “by the grace of God” his parents said after the child was sucked up into a tornado in Tennessee.

    The couple said a deadly tornado on Saturday tore apart their mobile home, picking up a bassinet with the baby still inside of it. He survived and was discovered in a fallen tree in the pouring rain. The baby, his one-year-old brother and parents only suffered from minor cuts and bruises. As the tornado approached, the mother of two, 22-year-old Sydney Moore, said the roof of their mobile home was ripped off.

    “The tip of the tornado came down and picked up the bassinet with my baby, Lord, in it,” Ms Moore told a local news station. “He was the first thing to go up.” Her boyfriend – and the boy’s father – lunged to protect Lord in the bassinet, but ended up getting picked up by the tornado, too.

    “He was just holding on to the bassinet the whole time, and they went into circles, he said, and then they got thrown,” Ms Moore said. As that was happening, Ms Moore grabbed her one-year-old son, Princeton.

    “Something in me just told me to run and jump on top of my son,” Ms Moore said. “Literally the moment I jumped on him, the walls collapsed. I was being really crushed. I couldn’t breathe,” Ms Moore recalled.

    After the tornado passed, Ms Moore was able to escape the crush of the rubble with Princeton. She and her boyfriend immediately started searching for Lord. After looking for their baby in the pouring rain, they found the child – alive – in what Ms Moore says “looked like a little tree cradle”.

    According to the GoFundMe, Lord “looked like he was placed on the tree gently” – as if “an angel guided him safely to that spot. I will die for my kids. That’s not even a question. And my boyfriend would do the same thing,” Ms Moore said.
    –BBC, who are probably still laughing.

    One of those kids will become an Ivy. It is ordained.

  40. 40.

    mrmoshpotato

    This trial was all about damages: how much one of America’s embarrassment owed for his their sins.

    Fixed.  Also, now gender neutral.

  43. 43.

    frosty

    I just opened a bottle of Chandon. Ms F asked “Are we bad people for celebrating this?”

    No, I don’t think so!

  44. 44.

    Dan B

    @piratedan: I’ve read, from commenters of unknown legal expertise, that the amount of the judgement must be put in escrow during an appeal.

    True / not true?

  47. 47.

    mrmoshpotato

    @cain:

    Seriously, do you really want to see this guys face at a walmart trying to greet you? 

    Well, if you have a bucket of rotten produce with you at the time…

  51. 51.

    JoyceH

    DC is home to the jury pool most likely to sympathize with wronged black female civil servants, so I expected a hefty judgment. Just wish Rudy had the money to be taken away.

  52. 52.

    Leto

    OT but I don’t think we’ve covered this reporting today:
    The mystery of the missing binder: How a collection of raw Russian intelligence disappeared under Trump

    Washington (CNN) — A binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, raising alarms among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

    Its disappearance, which has not been previously reported, was so concerning that intelligence officials briefed Senate Intelligence Committee leaders last year about the missing materials and the government’s efforts to retrieve them, the sources said.

    In the two-plus years since Trump left office, the missing intelligence does not appear to have been found.

    The binder contained raw intelligence the US and its NATO allies collected on Russians and Russian agents, including sources and methods that informed the US government’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election, sources tell CNN.

    The intelligence was so sensitive that lawmakers and congressional aides with top secret security clearances were able to review the material only at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where their work scrutinizing it was itself kept in a locked safe.

    This is new reporting. If the Russians, and others, are able to more effectively target the US with disinformation, it’ll be because their asset stole more than we’ll ever know. For those of us that will live long enough to see it, I fully expect to see a Trumpov statue erected in Moscow. Or Kyrgyzstan. Like… the scope of this continually makes my mouth hang open in stupor.

  53. 53.

    Scout211

    @Leto: but I don’t think we’ve covered this reporting today:

    A lively discussion on the early morning thread. But the story deserves lots of discussion.

  57. 57.

    Leto

    @Scout211: sorry, first chance today to do more than just read the post. I hope Jack can use this in the FL documents case in some shape/manner. Hopefully he already knew this.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @Leto:

    My answer wasn’t 100% accurate. A bankruptcy plan can allocate some portion of future income to repayment of debt.  But the amount won’t make Jones poor.

  59. 59.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Leto: Agree.  I was born many centuries too late; my sentence would have been “Leave with nothing or die on the spot.”  I’m funny that way.

  61. 61.

    Scout211

    @Baud: The entire investigative report is worth a read.  The (former) president requested it because he wanted to declassify it and use it in some way.  Parts were redacted and copies were made but the original is nowhere to be found.  Lots of Trump aides pointing fingers

    The (former) president can declassify any documents he feels like declassifying, right? He told us this over and over so it must be true.

  62. 62.

    marklar

    Looking forward to Rudy’s debut on Cameo.  To add insult to injury, have George Santos out-charge and out-earn him.

  64. 64.

    JoyceH

    If I were Freeman and Moss, I would immediately file suit against Trump and Fox and every venue that promulgated the defamation. Some of them will probably pony up big bucks to get out from under.

  76. 76.

    Geminid

    @eclare: Mark Meadows made a similar choice. He had a safe Congressional seat when he signed on to be Trump’s Chief of Staff. Meadows might have been a Senator by now; Ted Budd had less going for him than Meadows would have, and Budd won Richard Burr’s seat last year.

    Now Meadows is in the shit. He’s fighting  Fulton County Prosecutor Willis’s indictment, and Jack Smith will likely force a guilty plea from him before this is over with.

  78. 78.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Steeplejack

    Generally speaking, the exceptions to discharge apply automatically if the language prescribed by section 523(a) applies. The most common types of nondischargeable debts are certain types of tax claims, debts not set forth by the debtor on the lists and schedules the debtor must file with the court, debts for spousal or child support or alimony, debts for willful and malicious injuries to person or property, debts to governmental units for fines and penalties, debts for most government funded or guaranteed educational loans or benefit overpayments, debts for personal injury caused by the debtor’s operation of a motor vehicle while intoxicated, debts owed to certain tax-advantaged retirement plans, and debts for certain condominium or cooperative housing fees.

    uscourts.gov
    Emphasis added

  80. 80.

    Scout211

    @Geminid: and Jack Smith will likely force a guilty plea from him before this is over with.

    Yes, but because he is cooperating, it won’t be as bad as it should be for him.

  81. 81.

    Martin

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: Yeah, this is what prevented Alex Jones from getting out from his judgement – jury found his acts were willful and malicious so the bankruptcy judge wouldn’t discharge the debt.

    Not sure if the jury found his defamation willful and malicious, but I would have to think so given the size of the award.

  82. 82.

    Martin

    So, IDF killed 3 hostages and two shipping firms are now avoiding the Red Sea. Everything going just great.

  85. 85.

    Bill Arnold

    @NorthLeft:

    ”Mr. Trump does not associate with losers.”

    Loser Mr. Trump must absolutely hate associating with himself, ever day, 24 hours per day.

  88. 88.

    Martin

    Like I said, it’s going just great.

    A Georgia middle school teacher was arrested last week after multiple witnesses told authorities he threatened to behead a 13-year-old Muslim student who said the Israeli flag hanging in his classroom offended her.

  90. 90.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @NobodySpecial: You say everything Trump touches dies, I say everything he embraced was already dead.

    Given the outcomes Trump’s various associates are facing, I wonder what the people working on his campaign are thinking at this point. I doubt they are all true believers; some [perhaps many] are in it for themselves and must be getting nervous.

  91. 91.

    trollhattan

    Donny Never Stop Grifting Trump looking at a new grift (via Digby)

    Former President Donald Trump on Friday proposed building up to 10 futuristic “freedom cities” on federal land, part of a plan that the 2024 presidential contender said would “create a new American future” in a country that has “lost its boldness.”

    Commuters, meanwhile, could get around in flying cars, Trump said – an echo of “The Jetsons,” the classic cartoon about a family in a high-tech future society. Work to develop vertical takeoff and landing vehicles is already underway by major airlines, auto manufacturers and other companies, though widely seen as years away from reaching the market.

    “I want to ensure that America, not China, leads this revolution in air mobility,” Trump, who announced his third bid for the presidency in November, said in a four-minute video detailing his plan.

    He said he would launch a contest to charter up to 10 “freedom cities” roughly the size of Washington, DC, on undeveloped federal land.

    I assume “undeveloped federal land” includes empty places like Yosemite NP, Grand Teton NP, Big Sur, Cape Cod….

  92. 92.

    Sanjeevs

    This Holiday Season, Prices for Some Goods Are Actually Falling

    Prices for some physical goods are falling outright, which could lift consumers’ spirits.

     

    But Housing Prices Remain High, Even as Inflation Falls
    Buying a home is a less attainable goal for many young people, and rents are expensive. Could that dog Democrats in the 2024 election

    NYT finds a story that can’t be both sidesed – so they deliberately find a different story and somehow link it to the first.

  94. 94.

    Dangerman

    @Jackie: On the positive side, Walmart would have no problem selling rotten fruit, they wouldn’t need maintenance to clean up dog shit off the floors (“Martha, get a bag and matches”), etc

  98. 98.

    TS

    So many have been convicted of civil and criminal offences because of their support for trump yet it makes no difference to the rest of his supporters. It is a true cult in every possible way

  99. 99.

    Chip Daniels

    @cain:

    That’s why God targeted their house for destruction, because blasphemy.

     

    Some folk just can’t take  a hint.

  100. 100.

    Geminid

    @Scout211: Meadows has a good defense attorney who should get him a relatively good deal. That is, so long as Meadows does not hold back on what he knows.

    Cassidy Hutchinson, Meadows’ former Chief of Staff, says she last saw the classified file on the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation (the one that Leto brought up at #52) in Meadows’ safe and believes he took it with him.

    In the wrong hands, that unredacted file could cause as much or more damage than any of the files in the Mar-a-Loco documents case. Meadows had better have a good story on that one.

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    It’s a stunning damages amount, one which reflects not only the vicious campaign of harassment that Giuliani unleashed by falsely claiming that a video showed the two tampering with ballots at a Georgia voting center, but the extent to which Trump’s consigliere went out of his way to make things as bad as possible for himself.

    Giuliani used to be a prosecutor. I presume that most of the cases he won were solid. I presume that he understands the law.

    I don’t understand why he and others are so eager to become Trump’s toadies, and for practically no reward.

    And I don’t understand why he was so willing to hurt other people simply to feed Trump’s ego, when he must have known what the consequences might be.

    This is not the banality of evil. It’s the imbecility of evil.

  110. 110.

    Geminid

    @Sister Golden Bear: Meadows could have left that file in his safe and told Cipillone(sp?), the White House Council where it was. Or carried it over to Cipillone himself. That certainly would have been a safer course. Meadows knew how sensitive the file’s “sources and methods” information was.

    This story raises a lot of questions with no clear answers. Maybe we’ll get some more details now that it has broken.

  111. 111.

    Tony G

    @Betty Cracker: The sheer stupidity of the people who have chosen to attach themselves to Trump continues to astonish me.  Rudy, for no good reason, was anointed as “America’s mayor” more than 22 years ago.  All he had to do at that point was get paid for speaking engagements while “writing” a few ghost-written books full of platitudes.  But he had to serve as Trump’s consigliere.  I hope that he ends up living in a cardboard box.

  112. 112.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    My answer wasn’t 100% accurate. A bankruptcy plan can allocate some portion of future income to repayment of debt. But the amount won’t make Jones poor.

    I’d settle for its making him middle class, IOW 50th percentile of income.

    To him, that would feel like poverty, which would at least be something.

  115. 115.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Martin: ​
     

    He gives them permission to be assholes, and they REALLY want to be assholes.

    Nailed it. Trumpism in a nutshell.

  117. 117.

    WaterGirl

    I think Mark Meadows must know he’s going to prison, and he’s fighting really hard to make sure it’s federal prison and not GA state prison.

  118. 118.

    Geminid

    @Martin: Yeah, Meadows burned a lot of stuff. I assume it was materials that would incriminate him or make him look bad. But the Crossfire Hurricane file covered events that occurred long before Meadows went to work for Trump. So what was Meadows’ interest in destroying it?

    And Meadows’ chief of staff was the one who testified about the document burning, but she didn’t say Meadows burned this supposedly thick file. She believed he took it with him.

    Like I say, this story raises a lot of questions whose answers I can only guess at right now.

  119. 119.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Leto: Yeah, butter emails.

    Has anyone asked Comey about this? Or did we go ahead and staple his lips together? Either would be great.

  121. 121.

    artem1s

    Gonna be lots of speculation about who did and didn’t want the info unclassified. Maybe that’s part of the Russian PSYOPs. Anyone can be made to look bad when your spinning conspiracy stories. Comey for instance. It would be irresponsible not to speculate whether there was proof in there that he planned his little October surprise at the bequest of Daddy Vladdy. I could see TIFG wanting that info out there.
    Since the CIA or NSA or whoever is never going to release the content of the unredacted documents the assumption will be anything and everything was in there including the burial place of Jimmy Hoffa, hiding place of the Holy Grail, and the origin of the Magic Bullet.

  122. 122.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I think often these days of a quote from The Great Gatsby.

    They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and . . . then retreated back into their money . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

    That’s the Trump administration. Careless people.

  123. 123.

    Matt McIrvin

    @trollhattan: When I was in elementary school, the joke about bogus campaign promises in student council elections was that someone would promise “Coke will come from the drinking fountains”.

    This is on the “Coke will come from the drinking fountains” level.

  124. 124.

    Lyrebird

    @OlFroth: ​those who acted on his words should face charges once they’re identified.

     

    The mobs outside their house? Not sure if they will be identifiable, though I agree.

    Some of the people who delivered threats are now defendants in the GA RICO case with DA Willis. Good.

    And the damages being unanimously approved – that is some of the best news of this week, this year. Those two women deserve nothing less.

  125. 125.

    kalakal

    Does this mean Ghouliani will have to switch to a cheaper brand of hair dye?

    That’ll be a good look, he’ll leave a trail wherever he goes like the slug he is

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    I don’t understand why he and others are so eager to become Trump’s toadies, and for practically no reward.

    And I don’t understand why he was so willing to hurt other people simply to feed Trump’s ego, when he must have known what the consequences might be.

    They see a reward in being a shit. That’s why they like ShitForBrains. Because if they feed SFB’s ego, that might get them within the ring of fame. Likely they did not know that stupidity and illegality do not equal fame.

  129. 129.

    gene108

    Seems to me the defendant in a civil trial can escape paying damages indefinitely with appeals and taking advantage of a legal system designed to cater to rich fuckwads.

    Seems like an utterly useless system to hold the rich and powerful to any kind of accountability.

  130. 130.

    Chris Johnson

    @Brachiator: I think I know why Rudy went the way he did. He famously busted the Italian Mafia… using the Russian Mafia. Which implies he’s been connected to Russia for a VERY long time. He did this while Trump was operating in New York… with Epstein. I’m gonna say they’re all mobbed up and it’s strictly Russian since way back, and that’s why Rudy is the way he is.

    Russia isn’t what it used to be. They’ve got more important battles to fight, and it’s not going well. Even to save face (and they do not care about that unless it’s to get results for the motherland) they don’t care about outsiders fighting their battles overseas. Rudy’s on his own, and that’s why this can happen now when it couldn’t happen before.

  131. 131.

    Jinchi

    @Brachiator: ​
     I don’t understand why he and others are so eager to become Trump’s toadies, and for practically no reward.

    Trump opened up opportunities for graft and corruption. Rudy and the rest planned to be at the front of the line for under the table money coming in to work the system or selling access to TFG.

    A rare few, like Jared Kushner, hit the jackpot.

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