Georgia law contains a major roadblock for Giuliani's appeal of $148 million judgment

During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show," former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade stated that cash-strapped Rudy Giuliani may not be able to appeal the massive $148 million judgment levied against him for defaming two Georgia poll workers.

Late Friday a jury slapped the former New York City mayor with the multimillion-dollar penalty to be paid to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss that included $75 million in punitive damages.

On Saturday morning, host Phang asked the former prosecutor if Giuliani could mount a successful appeal.

As McQuade explained, Giuliani may not have the money to enter the appeal process.

"That's an interesting question because one of the things that is a bit of an obstacle to an appeal is the idea that in Georgia a person has to post what is known as an appeal bond," she told the host. "The idea behind an appeal bond is that an appeal could be filed for good faith reasons and it could also be filed for delaying the payday."

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"So to avoid the latter, litigants are required to pay in advance an appeal bond which is usually something more than the amount of the judgment so that it's there in case there was a finality on the case," she continued. "I don't know that Rudy Giuliani is going to get an appeal bond so he might not be able to do it at all. I think one remedy he does have available is what is known as remitter, which is filing a motion with the trial court that handled the case to say that this amount is excessive. But even if there is some reduction in this amount we are still talking about tens of millions of dollars here."

Watch below or at the link.

MSNBC 12 16 2023 08 01 38 youtu.be