Giuliani defamation trial: Jury awards election workers nearly $150 million
The amount is three times as much as plaintiffs were seeking.
Following a week-long trial, a federal jury has ordered former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss for defaming them with false accusations that the mother and daughter committed election fraud while the two were counting ballots in Georgia's Fulton County on Election Day in 2020.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in August awarded a default judgment to the two women, leaving the trial to determine the full scope of the damages and penalties. Freeman and Moss were seeking between $15.5 million and an amount in the $40 million range.
Top headlines:
- Jury awards Freeman, Moss $75 million apiece
- Freeman, Moss entitled to $24M each, attorney argues
- Giuliani won't testify, attorney says
- Freeman tearfully testifies she left her home due to threats
- Fixing plaintiffs' reputations will cost up to $47M, says expert
- Moss, through tears, describes life after Giuliani's accusations
- Georgia investigators dispel election fraud claims
- Judge blasts Giuliani for 'additional defamatory' remarks
- Expert describes racist content 'on a level we don't see'
Award includes emotional distress, punitive damages
The jury awarded Ruby Freeman $16,171,000 and Shaye Moss $16,998,000.
In addition, jurors awarded each of the woman $20 million for emotional distress.
Finally, they awarded them a total of $75 million in punitive damages, for a total award of nearly $150 million.
The amount is approximately three times the $48 million the plaintiffs were seeking.
Jury awards Freeman, Moss $75 million apiece
The jury in Rudy Giuliani's defamation case has determined that the former New York City mayor will have pay former election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss approximately $75 million apiece for targeting them with defamatory statements in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Jury reaches decision, announcement to come
The jury that has been deliberating the amount of damages Rudy Giuliani will have to pay for his defamatory statements targeting Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss has reached a decision.
Their determination is expected to be announced shortly.
Jury deliberations continue
The jury is continuing its deliberations over the amount of damages Rudy Giuliani will have to pay for his defamatory statements targeting Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
The eight jury members have been deliberating since this morning with no questions for the judge and no indication of their progress.
During their first day of deliberations yesterday, jury members asked Judge Beryl Howell for the full report compiled by expert witness Dr. Ashlee Humphreys on the reach of Giuliani's defamatory statements, but the judge declined the request because the complete report had not been entered into evidence.
Jurors are commonly tasked with a binary decision: guilt or innocence. But because Giuliani has already been found liable for defaming Freeman and Moss, jurors are left to determine the full scope of damages -- in essence, to put a dollar figure on the cost of Giuliani's lies.
In requesting awards of $24 million for each of the two women, attorneys for the plaintiffs asked the jury in Thursday's closing arguments to compensate them for some practical costs like lost wages and a security system Freeman installed at her house. But jurors must also grapple with more abstract concepts like the women's emotional distress and potential punitive measures for Giuliani.
An attorney for Giuliani urged jurors to hew their final decision closer to the practical costs, which account for only part of the tens of millions of dollars sought by the plaintiffs.
Judge Howell is expected to allow deliberations to continue until 5 p.m. ET. If they fail to reach agreement by then, she will likely summon them back next week.