A former New York Police Department (NYPD) commissioner who helped the Trump campaign investigate false claims of election fraud in 2020 will turn over documents to two Georgia election workers suing former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani for defamation.
Bernard Kerik turned over the records to counsel representing Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, Fulton County poll workers during the 2020 election who sued Giuliani in December 2021 for falsely claiming they played a role in fixing the election.
Kerik has also turned over his records to the special counsel investigating former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
He had claimed Trump and his 2020 election campaign held privilege over documents he was withholding from the election workers’ attorneys. But at the former NYPD commissioner’s request, the Trump campaign withdrew its assertions of work product privilege on a number of documents, according to a new court filing. The Trump campaign is still asserting attorney-client privilege over some emails, the filing says.
Kerik agreed to sit for another deposition before Aug. 25 that will address the new documents and topics objected to in his first deposition, according to the filing.
He also agreed to defer any objections over the documents to attorneys for the campaign. His team won’t object on the basis of privilege or refuse to answer any questions from the election workers’ attorneys.
“The parties believe at this time that Mr. Kerik’s production may resolve most of the remaining issues before this Court,” the filing reads.
Giuliani played a central role in Trump’s push to undermine the 2020 election results.
Freeman and Moss, a mother-daughter duo who testified before the House’s Jan. 6 committee last summer, have faced backlash in the years since. Investigations involving three law enforcement agencies — Georgia’s Secretary of State’s office and special agents with the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation — found that allegations against the poll workers “were false and unsubstantiated.”
Earlier this month, the election workers claimed Giuliani failed to turn over evidence despite “repeated reminders” from the court and urged the court to impose “severe” sanctions on him.
Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Giuliani, told The Hill at the time the request is part of a “larger effort to smear and silence Mayor Giuliani for daring to ask questions, and for challenging the accepted narrative.”
The D.C. Bar Association has recommended Giuliani be disbarred for having “seriously undermined the administration of justice” in his efforts to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.