Newsmax has largely been ignoring the legal mess Rudy Giuliani created for himself by repeatedly and falsely defaming two Georgia election workers while still allowing him to have a show on its streaming channel — though it has discontinued its legal defense fund for him and reportedly threatened to drop Giuliani’s streaming show if he continued to use it to spread lies about those election workers. In between, Newsmax continued to make the occasional talking-head appearance on Newsmax proper. In a Jan. 1 appearance, he played politics with the terror attack in New Orleans: “Of course, the [Biden] administration would be very, very loathe to say ‘Islamic extremist terrorism’ since we’ve been prohibited from doing that since [former President Barack] Obama — a terrible mistake, because it’s terrible and difficult to defeat your enemy if you don’t name them. Like, if we had never named the Nazis, it might have been difficult to defeat them. But, hopefully, that’s going to change.”
Meanwhile, his legal troubles were coming to a head — which Newsmax finally took notice of. A Jan. 3 article by Luc Cohen reported on an upcoming hearing over whether told Giuliani “in civil contempt for refusing to turn over property as payment toward a $148 million defamation award.” After Giuliani was, in fact, held in contempt, a Jan. 7 article by the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy let Giuliani’s lawyer whine about his client being held accountable (again):
The attorney for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani accused the Biden administration’s Justice Department and the Democrat-led city’s legal system of teaming up to commit “lawfare” against his client.
Giuliani was found in contempt of court Monday for failing to properly respond to requests for information as he turned over assets to satisfy a $148 million defamation judgment granted to two Georgia election workers.
“Today my client @RudyGiuliani was unjustly held in Contempt of Court. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, did not get what they wanted on behalf of their clients, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss,” lawyer Joe Cammarata posted Monday night on X.
“They wanted Mayor Giuliani not to be able to defend himself at the trial on January 16, 2025, but the Judge did not grant that relief, as it would have been the death penalty in this case. You did not see the Plaintiffs in Court probably because this case is not about them. This case is about lawfare and the weaponization of the legal system in New York City.”
Neither McCarthy nor Cammarata noted that (as opposed to a more fair and balanced media organization) Giuliani smeared the judge, Beryl Howell, as a Soviet and Nazi, or that Howell pointed out that Giuliani “engaged in the worst kind of defamation,” or that Howell ordered Giuliani to submit a sworn statement that there was no fraud in the 2020 election. Instead, he was given yet another chance to repeat his lies in a Jan. 7 Newsmax TV appearance:
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said the fix was in during his contempt hearing in New York earlier this week, telling Newsmax on Tuesday that the judge wrote his opinion long before Giuliani testified.
Giuliani was found in contempt of court Monday for failing to properly respond to requests for information as he turned over assets to satisfy a $148 million defamation judgment granted to two Georgia election workers.
Judge Lewis J. Liman issued his contempt-of-court ruling after hearing Giuliani testify for a second day at a hearing called after lawyers for the election workers said the former mayor had failed to properly comply with requests for evidence over the last few months.
“I testified for six hours, had to come back on Monday to testify. The judge took a recess and read his 20-page or so opinion about 10 minutes later. What does that tell you? He wrote it before I testified,” Giuliani said on “The Chris Salcedo Show.”
Giuliani appears not to know that spewing lies about a judge on TV tends to make her less favorable to your case.
When the litigation was abruptly settled a week or so later, Newsmax offered only a brief, perfunctory report:
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who served as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, has settled litigation with two Georgia election workers he accused of helping steal the 2020 election for Joe Biden.
In a statement on the X social media platform, Giuliani said:
I have reached a resolution of the litigation with the Plaintiffs that will result in a satisfaction of the Plaintiffs’ judgment. This resolution does not involve an admission of liability or wrongdoing by any of the Parties. I am satisfied with and have no grievances relating to the result we have reached. I have been able to retain my New York coop and Florida Condominium and all of my personal belongings. No one deserves to be subjected to threats, harassment, or intimidation. This litigation has taken its toll on all parties. This whole episode was unfortunate. I and the Plaintiffs have agreed not to ever talk about each other in any defamatory manner, and I urge others to do the same.
Of course, the only person who has been exposed as committing wrongdoing is Giuliani — but Newsmax isn’t going to tell its readers that. Indeed, Newsmax has done absolutely nothing on the settlement, even though there are lingering questions, such as where the money came from for Giuliani to make this confidential settlement (like, say, Donald Trump). He clearly needed the money given that he begged for some from Newsmax host Greg Kelly during a 2023 TV appearance: “You got any money you can loan me, Greg?”
Of course, Giuliani remains on the Newsmax payroll as a streaming talking head (money the court could have taken if litigation continued), so Newsmax is never going to subject him to anything remotely resembling journalistic scrutiny.