Jeffrey Toobin: Rudy Giuliani’s ‘Clearly Libelous’ Leaked Deposition Video a ‘Disaster’ for Fox News

CNN Chief Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin believes leaked video of Rudy Giuliani’s deposition in the defamation suits brought against him against Smartmatic and Dominion show that he was “clearly libelous” and could be a “disaster” for media, like Fox News, that irresponsibly amplified his baseless claims.

Thursday night CNN aired videos of Giuliani and Sidney Powell giving depositions in a case involving their wild claims of election fraud.

Footage reveals the lawyer for former President Donald Trump saying: “We had a report that the heads of Dominion and Smartmatic, somewhere in the mid-teens, 20… 13, 14, whatever, went down to Venezuela for a get-to-know meeting with Maduro so they could demonstrate to Maduro the kind of vote fixing they did for [Hugo] Chavez.”

In another clip, Giuliani said, “Sometimes I go and look myself online when stuff comes up. This time, I didn’t have the time to do it.” He later added, “It’s not my job in a fast-moving case to go out and investigate every piece of evidence that’s given to me. Otherwise, you’re never going to write a storYou’re’re never going to come to a conclusion.”

New Day co-anchor John Berman played a portion of the video for viewers before asking Toobin to opine. And opine he di”.

“In order to win a libel, the plaintiffs have to show a reckless disregard for the truth,” Toobin proffered. “That deposition, to me, looks like the definition for reckless disregard for the truth.”

“The idea that you will go out in public, and damage the reputation, as Giuliani clearly did to these companies, without any sort of checking, without any sort of concern for whether why you’re saying is true, seems to be clearly libelous,” he continued. “And just I think Giuliani will be on the hook for millions of dollars.”

“Libel is supposed to address harm to reputation. The company’s reputations were horribly damaged by these total falsehoods that he put out there, with, it seems to me, reckless disregard for the truth. I think these will be disastrous for him,” he continued. “And they may well be disastrous for the media outlets, including Fox News, that put it on uncritically.”

Smartmatic has filed a massive $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Fox stars Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro, as well as pro-Trump lawyers Giuliani and Powell. Dominion Voting Systems has also sued Fox News for $1.6 billion, alleging the network falsely claimed Dominion rigged the 2020 election. Fox News has filed to dismiss both suits.

Watch above via Fox News.

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