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

In emotional testimony, Shaye Moss described how, following the 2020 election, her mental health spiraled out of control over the course of 2021 -- a period during which she said her life fell into a rhythm of "Cry, eat, sleep. Cry, eat, sleep."

"I'm like a hermit crab now. Obviously, I look totally different," she said. "I've gained 70 pounds. I realize I stress-eat."

"I don't trust anyone," she added.

After seeking therapy, she told her therapist about her nightmares -- that a mob would arrive at her house "with nooses, with pitchforks and signs," and that her son would find her hanging.

"The look of shock on [the therapist's] face, the look of disbelief -- it kind of scared me," she said. "I felt bad for releasing all that on the therapist."

Moss says she was diagnosed with "acute stress disorder." Months later, she met with a different therapist who made a more serious diagnosis: "major depressive disorder with acute distress," Moss said.

One interlude from the aftermath of the 2020 election demonstrates how Moss' career prospects deteriorated, she testified.

Moss said she felt so disillusioned with election work by mid-2021 that she sought work elsewhere. She applied for a job at a Chick-fil-A restaurant and secured an interview.

"I was dressed up. I had my notebook with my resume. I was excited, I was ready," Moss said. The interview "went great," she said, even though she realized that, without relevant experience, she would be asked to do menial tasks.

"I had made up my mind that, oh well, I'll have to start at the bottom," she testified. "And if I can work my way up at [voter] registration, I can work my way up here."

Before leaving, however, the interviewer showed her an article on his laptop and said, "Tell me about this. Is this you? Is this true?"

The article featured an image of her face with the word "Fraud" plastered across it.

"The more he was talking, the more I just tuned it out," Moss said. "I was so shocked, I was so embarrassed … I just had to leave. I just left."

Shaye Moss felt dejected and fearful after Rudy Giuliani's defamatory statements and accusations about her proliferated online -- prompting the veteran election worker to change her appearance and leave her job.

John Langford, an attorney for Moss, displayed emails and messages she received on social media in late 2020, as her name circulated online in right-wing media. One read, "Be glad it's 2020 and not 1920."

The chilling message, which she said made her "afraid for my life," prompted her to assume a new physical identity.

"I went into my hair salon and I asked my stylist to make it so the same person she saw walk in here is not the person who leaves," Moss recalled.

Her stylist, she said, "dyed it a strawberry blond color." A selfie Moss took the following day showed her with a "puffy face from crying all night."

Though her hair changed, Moss said she returned to work after "the worst Christmas" of her life, determined to return to normalcy. "My goal was still to make sure that everything was ready for our next election, that everything ran smoothly," she testified.

Instead, she recalled, "Things ain't never returned to normal."

Moss left the Fulton County elections office in April 2022 after she was passed over for a promotion. "It felt like a slap in the face," she said, because she sensed that her superiors thought it would look bad for the county.

"I wanted to retire a county worker, like my grandma -- make her proud, make my mom proud -- but..." she said, trailing off in tears.

Rudy Giuliani, seated at the defense table, showed little emotion as Moss wept on the witness stand. Leaning with his elbow on the table, the former mayor took intermittent notes as she testified.

-ABC News' Lucien Bruggeman and Laura Romero

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.