Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ‘Shay’ Moss faced an outpouring of racist and sexist threats after Giuliani’s false claims.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as Donald Trump’s personal attorney, will pay $148 million in damages to two former campaign officials who defamed him with false claims about the 2020 presidential election. commanded.
An eight-person federal jury in Washington, D.C., ruled Friday that Giuliani awarded Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shay” Moss $75 million in punitive damages, plus $3,600 each for defamation and emotional distress. He said he should pay $1,000. To rig the election against Trump.
The award comes after Freeman and Moss, former pollsters in Fulton County, Georgia, testified that Giuliani’s false claims led to a flood of racist and sexist threats. Ta.
Moss and Freeman, who are black, said in court that they feared for their lives after being falsely accused of tampering with voting machines by hiding their ballots in suitcases and counting them multiple times.
Freeman testified that she fled her home because the FBI told her it wasn’t safe, and Moss told jurors that she rarely leaves the house and suffers from panic attacks.
“Our greatest hope is that no election worker, voter, school board member or anyone else ever experiences what we went through again,” Moss told reporters after the verdict. “You all matter and all of you matter.”
A federal judge found Giuliani liable in August, leaving it up to a jury to determine damages.
Giuliani said his comments about the election were unrelated to the threats the women had received and called the jury’s verdict unreasonable.
“The absurdity of this number only emphasizes the absurdity of the entire lawsuit,” he said.
“It’s dizzyingly quick to reverse things. In fact, the ridiculous numbers that are coming in right now are going to help that.”
Mr. Giuliani also insisted that his comments were “tenable and still tenable today.”
Mr. Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Sibley, acknowledged his client caused harm, but said the $48 million fine sought by two election officials was “the end” for Mr. Giuliani. He claimed to be a “good person.”
The ruling adds to a growing list of legal and financial woes for Mr. Giuliani. Before joining Trump’s inner circle, Giuliani was known as “America’s Mayor” after leading New York after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Giuliani, along with Trump and 17 others, was charged with participating in an illegal conspiracy to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
In 2021, Juliana’s license to practice law in New York and Washington, D.C. was suspended for false statements about the 2020 election.
In September, the 79-year-old former prosecutor was sued by his former attorney, claiming he had only paid a portion of $1.6 million in unpaid legal fees.
He is also being sued by President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, for computer fraud, and by former employees for wage theft and sexual harassment.
