-
Rudy Giuliani’s lawyers said in a court filing that he can’t give Dominion documents for its lawsuit against him.
-
They said the FBI took them all when they raided his home and office last year and he didn’t keep backups.
-
Dominion alleges Giuliani defamed the company with 2020 election conspiracy theories.
Rudy Giuliani can’t hand over documents for Dominion Voting System’s $1.3 billion lawsuit against him because they’re in the possession of the FBI.
The revelation came in a new filing for a sprawling legal case where Dominion has sued Giuliani, fellow pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell over an array of false conspiracy theories that the election technology company manipulated the results of the 2020 election.
In a joint letter proposing a schedule to move those cases forward, Dominion’s attorneys wrote that Giuliani can’t provide discovery material for the lawsuit against him because the FBI seized them when they raided his home in May as part of an investigation into whether he broke lobbying laws.
Giuliani didn’t make any backup copies, his lawyers say.
“Giuliani claims that he has no access to any electronic documents, files, or communications, including back-up files or files stored in the Cloud, from before April 2021 because those files have all been seized by the FBI, and Giuliani failed to maintain copies of any of them,” Dominion’s attorneys wrote.
In the same filing, Giuliani’s lawyers corroborated that the FBI was in possession of his files.
“Giuliani’s position is that given that the FBI did not offer Giuliani the opportunity to make back-up copies of the electronic devices and/or cloud data it took possession of, Giuliani objects to Plaintiffs’ suggestion that he ‘failed’ to maintain copies of the documents,” his attorneys wrote. “These electronic files/data are no longer under Giuliani’s possession, custody, or control.”
Dominion said it’s seeking documentation surrounding the circumstances of Giuliani’s media interviews where he falsely claimed Dominion manipulated election results. Giuliani has said in court filings that his claims were “substantially true” and didn’t meet the threshold for defamation.
In May of last year, federal agents raided Giuliani’s home and office in Manhattan as part of its investigation, as well as his associates Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova. Prosecutors are reportedly examining whether he broke lobbying laws during a failed quest to find politically damaging information about now-President Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election.
In the intervening months, prosecutors and Giuliani’s attorneys have fought over whether some of the material taken by the FBI should be protected by attorney-client privilege. A special master appointed by the court said in a report Friday that three of the tens of thousands of documents should be shielded from prosecutors because of privilege, and dozens of others because they were “highly personal.”
Dominion’s lawyers said in Monday night’s joint letter that they will ask Giuliani to request copies of the relevant discovery documents from the FBI.
While Lindell has been appealing US District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols’s decision to allow Dominion’s lawsuits to proceed, lawyers for Giuliani and Powell said in Monday night’s letter that they expect to win the cases Dominion brought against them in summary judgment. Dominion proposed a schedule that would bring the cases to trial in 2023.
Dominion’s attorneys also said they did not anticipate settling with Lindell, Giuliani, or Powell.
“Given the devastating harm to Plaintiffs, the lack of remorse shown by Defendants, and the fact that many of them continue to double down on their lies, Plaintiffs do not believe any realistic possibility of settlement exists,” their lawyers wrote.
Read the original article on Business Insider
