U.S. jury orders Giuliani pay $148M US in damages to Georgia election workers over 2020 vote lies
Wandrea Moss, Ruby Freeman targeted by false conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani
A jury awarded $148 million US in damages on Friday to two former Georgia election workers who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020 that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.
The damages verdict follows emotional testimony from Wandrea (Shaye) Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who tearfully described becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Republicans as they tried to keep then-president Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.
Giuliani had already been found liable in the case and previously conceded in court documents that he falsely accused the women of ballot fraud. Even so, the former New York City mayor continued to repeat his baseless allegations about the women in comments to reporters outside the Washington, D.C., courthouse this week.
Giuliani's lawyer acknowledged that his client was wrong but insisted that Giuliani was not fully responsible for the vitriol the women faced. The defence sought to largely pin the blame on a right-wing website that published the surveillance video of the two women counting ballots.
The judgment adds to growing financial and legal peril for Giuliani, who was among the loudest proponents of Trump's false claims of election fraud that are now a key part of the criminal cases against the former president.
Giuliani had already been showing signs of financial strain as he defends himself against costly lawsuits and investigations stemming from his representation of Trump. His lawyer suggested that the defamation case could financially ruin the former mayor, saying "it would be the end of Mr. Giuliani."
And Giuliani is still facing his biggest test yet: Fighting criminal charges in the Georgia case accusing Trump and 18 others of working to subvert the results of the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden, in that state. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty and characterized the case as politically motivated.
'Facts will not stop him'
Jurors in the defamation case heard recordings of Giuliani falsely accusing the election workers of sneaking in ballots in suitcases, counting ballots multiple times and tampering with voting machines. Trump also repeated the conspiracy theories through his social media accounts. Lawyers for Moss and Freeman, who are Black, also played for jurors audio recordings of the graphic and racist threats the women received.
On the witness stand, Moss and Freeman recounted receiving a torrent of hateful and threatening messages after they became the targets of the conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Trump allies. The women told jurors the lies made them fear for their lives and described how they remain scared to go out in public years later.
In his closing argument, a lawyer for Moss and Freeman highlighted how Giuliani has not stopped repeating the false conspiracy theory asserting the workers meddled in the 2020 presidential election. Lawyer Michael Gottlieb played a video of Giuliani outside the courthouse earlier this week repeating the false claims about his clients.
"Mr. Giuliani has shown over and over again he will not take our clients' names out of his mouth," Gottlieb said. "Facts will not stop him. He says he isn't sorry and he's telegraphing he will do this again. Believe him."
Gottlieb asked the jury to send a message to other powerful people with the amount they award.
"Facts matter. Truth is truth and you will be held accountable," he said. Giuliani's lawyer has said any award should be much less, describing the damages the women are seeking as the "civil equivalent of the death penalty."
Lawyer Joseph Sibley told jurors they should compensate the women for what they are owed, but urged them to "remember this is a great man."
"I want you to send a message to America, we can come together in compassion and sympathy," he said.
Sibley told jurors that right-wing website Gateway Pundit was "patient zero" in spreading the conspiracy theory about the women, and said Giuliani was sued because he is "patient deep pockets." Gateway Pundit has also been sued by Freeman and Moss in a case yet to be resolved.
Giuliani's lawyer had told jurors in his opening statement that they would hear from his client but after his comments outside court, the judge barred him from claiming in testimony that his conspiracy theories were right. His defence team rested without calling a single witness.
Despite already being held liable in the case, Giuliani repeated his false claims about the women earlier this week. On Monday, he told reporters outside the courthouse that everything he said about the women was "true," again accusing them of "engaging in changing votes."
The case is among mounting legal and financial woes for the man once celebrated as "America's mayor" for his leadership in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Giuliani is among 19 people charged in Georgia in the case accusing Trump and his allies of working to subvert the state's 2020 election results. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty to a 13-count indictment he has characterized as politically motivated.
He also fits the description, based on statements contained in charging documents, of one of Trump's unindicted co-conspirators in a federal election interference case the former president faces.
A hard-charging federal lawyer in the 1980s before he became New York's mayor, Giuliani has also faced disbarment proceedings in New York and the District of Columbia.
In news conferences and before the Georgia legislature, Giuliani repeatedly pushed debunked claims based on selective video from Atlanta's State Farm Arena that Freeman and Moss pulled out suitcases of illegal ballots and committed other acts of fraud to try to alter the outcome of the race.
Trump's campaign retweeted the suitcase allegations on the social media platform now known as X.
In one portion of the video, Giuliani asserted the two women had exchanged a USB stick. Court heard that they, in fact, were exchanging a package of mints.
Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's voting system implementation manager, said shortly after the claims emerged that the full surveillance video from the venue indicated those ballot carriers were accounted for earlier in the day.
A U.S. House committee heard testimony that Trump took aim at Moss and Freeman in a recorded call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger weeks after the election, calling Freeman a "professional vote scammer" and "hustler."
With files from CBC News