Giuliani defamation trial: Jury awards election workers nearly $150 million

A visibly upset Shaye Moss described what happened on Dec. 4, 2020 -- the day her boss informed her about the deluge of "nasty, hateful, violent" messages directed at her from online users accusing her of election fraud.

Moss said when her supervisor summoned her to his office, she thought she might be in line for a promotion. Colleagues smiled and gave her a thumbs up as she waded through their cubicles, she recalled.

Instead, Moss testified, she was shown social media posts accusing her of manipulating ballots.

"I am shown these videos, these lies, everything that's been going on that I had no clue about," Moss recalled. "I was confused, I was immediately fearful."

After returning to her desk, Moss said she "couldn't concentrate" for the rest of the day.

Taking the witness stand, Shaye Moss described the pride she felt as an election supervisor in Fulton County -- the position she held on Election Day in 2020.

Moss began her career in elections in 2012 as a temporary worker in the Fulton County elections office mail room. Five years later, she said she secured a promotion to permanent work.

"I worked really hard for that position. I was so excited I literally dropped to my knees and cried," Moss said. "It was like winning the golden ticket with Willy Wonka. I was so proud of myself."

Moss said she felt proud to work in elections and took particular delight in helping the elderly and others who found it difficult to cast their ballots. She said her grandmother inspired her to pursue a career in elections.

"No, I did not like my job -- because I loved my job," Moss recalled. "It would make my grandmother proud … my grandmother enjoyed telling her friends … that her grandbaby runs the election."

Two state investigators who examined allegations that Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss conspired to manipulate ballots on Election Day explained in video depositions how those claims were probed and found to be untrue.

Frank Braun and Frances Watson, both investigators with the Georgia Secretary of State at the time, explained that Freeman, Moss and their colleagues returned to State Farm Arena late on Nov. 3, 2020, after the secretary extended hours for counting ballots, to help expedite the process -- not, as Rudy Giuliani and others suggested, to rig votes.

"There was no evidence that suggested they did anything wrong, except show up to work and work hard," Braun said in his video deposition.

Watson, the chief investigator at the time, said that Giuliani's remarks about manipulated ballots at State Farm Arena were "not accurate."

Judge Beryl Howell admonished Rudy Giuliani for making "additional defamatory comments" about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss late Monday when he told ABC News' Terry Moran that he stands by his false statements about the two women.

Giuliani told Moran as he departed the courthouse Monday that "everything I said about them is true" and that the women "were engaged in changing votes."

Those comments "could support another defamation claim," Howell told Giuliani's attorney, Joseph Sibley, as court resumed Tuesday morning. "How do you reconcile those comments?"

"I wasn't there," Sibley said. "I don't know how that's reconcilable."

When Howell asked if Giuliani denied making those comments, Giuliani rose his voice and said, "Of course I did."

The trial has "taken a toll on him," Sibley said. "He's 80 years old ... I can't control everything he does."

Howell then questioned Giuliani's age, capacity and acuity -- and whether that might be an issue in the case. "Can he follow instructions?" she asked.

"The answer, of course, is yes," Sibley replied, adding again that "sitting through a multi-day trial" has been hard for Giuliani.

The judge appeared visibly frustrated while chastising Giuliani and his attorney over his remarks. Giuliani, reclining in his chair at the defendant's table, shook his head at times.