A judge on Monday found Rudy Giuliani to be in civil contempt of court in a $148 million defamation case brought by two Georgia election workers that the former New York City Mayor falsely accused of trying to help steal the 2020 US presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden.
The contempt citation by US District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan - the district where Giuliani had been the top federal prosecutor - marks a further fall from grace for Giuliani, once known as "America's Mayor" for his response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit the election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Moss, brought against Giuliani in 2021. They accused the former personal lawyer to Republican President-elect Donald Trump of destroying their reputations by lying that they tried to help steal the 2020 election.
Giuliani made repeated false claims that a surveillance video showed the pair concealing and counting suitcases filled with illegal ballots at a basketball arena in Atlanta that was used to process votes.
Giuliani has been disbarred for making false claims about the 2020 election, and pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona that he aided Trump's failed attempt to overturn his loss.