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'
Freeman calls Trump's call to Georgia officials 'mean' and 'evil'
Then-President Donald Trump invoked Ruby Freeman's name more than a dozen times in his infamous phone call to Georgia officials on Jan. 2, 2021, when Trump implored Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to win him the state.
After an audio recording of the call was later made public, Freeman described hearing her name come out of the mouth of the "most powerful person on Earth," as her attorney characterized Trump.
"Where's Ruby?" Trump could be heard asking Raffensperger, referring to an expression that was then trending online.
"I just felt like, 'Really?'" Freeman testified. "The president, talking about me? Me? How mean, how evil."
"I just was devastated," she said. "It made me feel like, you don't care that I'm a real person."
Jury shown lynching threats that 'terrorized' Freeman
Jurors were shown a smattering of the racially charged threats Ruby Freeman received after video of her and her daughter counting ballots at State Farm Arena on election night circulated online.
The emails flooded her inbox on the night of Dec. 3, 2020, with several invoking lynching and references to the Ku Klux Klan.
One email, from an account called Grand Wizard with the email name "kkk" said, "Safest place for you right now is in prison. Or you will swing from the trees."
Another suggested the government hang her and her daughter from the "Capitol dome," saying, "I pray that I will be sitting close enough to hear your necks snap!"
Several of the messages accused her of being a traitor or "SCUM."
"I received so many on my phone that at one point my phone crashed," Freeman testified. "I felt horrible. I felt terrorized. I was scared … people are coming to kill me. They have my address, they have my phone number, they know my name."
Freeman testified that two days later, on Dec. 5, 2020, people began to show up at her house and she was forced to call the authorities.
While on the phone with police, Freeman said people were "banging" on her door.
"Not only am I getting phone calls and emails and stuff, now you're actually coming to the house," Freeman testified. "I was scared."
Freeman gives judge infamous ginger mint at heart of allegations
When Rudy Giuliani accused Ruby Freeman of "surreptitiously" passing her daughter a USB drive while the two were counting ballots on Election Day at State Farm Arena -- a central tenet of his false claims about the two women -- what he actually saw, according to Freeman, was something far less sinister: a ginger mint.
As Freeman took the stand, her attorney entered a ginger mint into evidence -- and Freeman passed the judge a ginger mint, too.
"I'm going to use this," Judge Beryl Howell said.
Freeman explained that she always has the candies with her. She passes them out to clients of her clothing boutique and those in need.
"I felt that it was healthy," she testified.
Freeman, who always went by "Lady Ruby," said she can no longer use her nickname publicly or in business.
"I can't use my name anymore, so I'm not Lady Ruby," she said as her voice cracked. "Sometimes I don't know who I am."
Ruby Freeman takes the stand
Ruby Freeman, the mother of Shaye Moss and her former co-worker in the Fulton County elections office, has taken the witness stand.
Freeman introduced herself to the jury as "Lady Ruby" as questioning got underway.
Giuliani's unfounded claims about the two women prompted a deluge of threats that ultimately drove Freeman from her suburban Atlanta home, she told ABC News' Terry Moran in an exclusive interview last year.
Jury selection begins this morning
Jury selection in the case gets underway at the D.C. federal courthouse this morning, where eight Washington residents will be chosen to serve.
Jurors will be tasked with attaching a monetary value to the harm caused by the defamatory statements a judge found Rudy Giuliani liable for making in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
When the parties arrive in court this morning, it will be the first time Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss face Giuliani in person.