Smartmatic alleges Rudy Giuliani uses flimsy excuses akin to “dog ate my homework” to evade document submission in defamation lawsuit

Smartmatic, the voting technology company, has accused Rudy Giuliani of fabricating excuses to avoid turning over documents in their defamation lawsuit against him and Fox News. Smartmatic claims that Giuliani only produced two public tweets in response to their requests for documents about his activities in 2020 and his appearances on Fox News, where he repeatedly claimed that Smartmatic rigged the presidential election results. The company is now asking a New York state judge to force Giuliani to turn over the materials and submit a financial declaration to support his claim that he can’t afford an outside vendor to handle the discovery request. They also want Giuliani to face sanctions and pay their legal fees.

According to Smartmatic, Giuliani has been making up excuses for months to avoid fulfilling his discovery obligations. They argue that he has not produced a single non-public document in response to their requests. This tactic mirrors what Giuliani faced in another defamation lawsuit related to the 2020 election, where he struggled to conduct thorough searches on his records to comply with subpoenas. In that case, he was ordered to pay over $90,000 in legal fees.

In a sworn affidavit, Giuliani claimed that he “lost” the iPhone he used between November 2020 and April 2021 but was able to search for documents through cloud-based backups. He also said he performed a manual search of his current iPhone and iPad but couldn’t find any text messages relevant to Smartmatic’s discovery request. However, Smartmatic alleges that Giuliani later backtracked on his promise to start turning over documents on a rolling basis.

CNN reached out to Giuliani’s attorney for comment but has not received a response. Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Giuliani, Fox News, and other pro-Trump entities and figures is seeking $2.7 billion in damages. Fox News recently settled a similar lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787 million.

This is just one of several legal battles that Giuliani is currently facing. He has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against former President Donald Trump, which accused them of trying to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 election. State prosecutors in Georgia are also investigating Giuliani’s attempts to interfere with the election in that state. Giuliani is also facing a defamation suit from Georgia election workers.

The judge in the Georgia defamation case has warned Giuliani that he may face severe sanctions for discovery-related issues similar to those in the Smartmatic case. Giuliani’s legal troubles continue to mount as he faces intense scrutiny over his actions surrounding the 2020 election.

– CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.

Original Story at www.cnn.com – 2023-08-08 07:00:00