© Reuters. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani arrives for his defamation lawsuit on the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington, U.S., December 15, 2023. The case was introduced by two Fulton County, Georgia election staff after they have been harassed following Giuliani’
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By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Rudy Giuliani should pay greater than $148 million in damages to 2 former Georgia election staff he defamed by way of false accusations that they helped rig the 2020 election towards Donald Trump, a jury selected Friday.
The jury in federal court docket in Washington, D.C., discovered that Giuliani owes the employees, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mom Ruby Freeman, roughly $73 million to compensate them for the reputational and emotional hurt they suffered and $75 million to punish the previous Trump lawyer and one-time New York main for his conduct.
A federal decide decided earlier than the trial that Giuliani was accountable for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional misery and civil conspiracy. The one query earlier than the jury was how a lot in damages to impose on Giuliani, who helped Republican former President Trump advance his false claims of a stolen 2020 election.
Giuliani mentioned he would attraction.
“The absurdity of the number merely underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding,” he informed reporters exterior the courtroom.
The decision was reached after an emotional three days of testimony wherein Moss and Freeman, who’re Black, recounted a deluge of racist and sexist messages, together with threats of lynching, they acquired after Trump and his allies unfold false claims that they have been engaged in voter fraud.
“Mr. Giuliani thought he could get away with making Ruby and Shaye the face of election fraud because he thought they were ordinary and expendable,” the employees’ lawyer Michael Gottlieb mentioned throughout his closing argument. “He has no right to offer defenseless civil servants up to a virtual mob in order to overturn an election.”
Joseph Sibley, a lawyer for Giuliani, acknowledged that his consumer had induced hurt, however mentioned the penalty the plaintiffs sought – a minimum of $48 million – can be “catastrophic” for his consumer. He informed the jury Giuliani was a “good man,” referencing his function as mayor of New York following the Sept. 11, 2001, Twin Towers assault.
“Rudy Giuliani shouldn’t be defined by what’s happened in recent times,” Sibley mentioned throughout his closing argument.
Giuliani made repeated false claims {that a} surveillance video confirmed Moss and Freeman concealing and counting suitcases stuffed with unlawful ballots at a basketball area in Atlanta that was used to course of votes in the course of the 2020 election.
The previous mayor, who had mentioned he would testify in the course of the trial, finally opted to not take the witness stand.
After the trial, he mentioned his feedback had “no connections at all” to the threats the 2 ladies acquired.
Trump additionally singled out Freeman by title in a extremely publicized January 2021 cellphone name throughout which he pressured Georgia’s high election officer, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” votes to overturn his slim defeat within the state.
A state investigation discovered that the girl have been legally and correctly processing ballots. Attorneys for the 2 ladies alleged that the claims have been a part of a conspiracy that concerned Trump, his authorized staff and a right-wing media outlet to assist Trump sow doubt concerning the election and reverse his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.
Giuliani has confronted a sequence of civil and legal woes – and mounting authorized charges — since serving to to spearhead Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.
Giuliani has been criminally charged within the Georgia racketeering case towards Trump and a number of other of his allies, partially for focusing on Moss and Freeman. He has pleaded not responsible.
