Why these Washington blueberry farm owners are suing over Rudy Giuliani’s missing movie

If there’s anything we’ve learned in recent years, it’s that big talk gets you a long way in politics. And it’s lucrative. Bombastic and false claims about a stolen election were enough to rally donors to shower hundreds of millions of dollars on Donald Trump’s campaign after 2020.

But the truth takes a lot longer to catch up.

Federal and state prosecutors took years to build cases laying out alleged felony obstruction, fraud, and RICO conspiracy by the former president and his aides.

Those indictments are now grinding their way through the courts. But a full reckoning about where the money went — all those donations from political supporters swept up in the “Stop the Steal” lie – that may never come.

Except for one case. It involves the man formerly known as America’s Mayor.

Rudy Giuliani has fallen a long way from his post-9/11 status on the national stage. He’s facing a torrent of legal problems, ranging from an indictment as a co-conspirator in the Georgia election interference case, to charges of defamation by election workers in that state, a lawsuit by a former employee alleging sexual assault and harassment, disbarment proceedings, and unpaid phone bills. He’s also an unindicted co-conspirator in a few cases.

Wealthy donors who gave a million dollars back in 2019 to finance a documentary Giuliani planned to make about Hunter Biden want their money back. They allege the movie was a scam and Giuliani pocketed a lot of that cash, without delivering. Those donors are Baldev and Kewel Munger who own farms up and down the West Coast, including in Whatcom County.

The Mungers are now suing. It may seem like small potatoes compared with election interference, but in the process of trying to claw back their money, the Mungers may do what most political donors can’t — hold political operatives accountable for false promises.

Katherine Long helped break the story of this lawsuit. She's a Seattle-based correspondent with Business Insider.

Long sat down with "Soundside" host Libby Denkmann to discuss how the Mungers got involved with Giuliani, and what this case could mean for him.

Listen to the full conversation by clicking the "play" button at the top of this story.