Giuliani defamation trial live updates: 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.


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Plaintiffs to call expert on reputation repair

Day 3 of the trial is scheduled to begin with a witness deposition video, finishing up the series of deposition videos that was played in court yesterday.

Plaintiffs' attorney are then expected to call an expert witness to the stand to testify about the impact of Giuliani's statements.

The testimony is expected to address the estimated cost to repair the damage done to Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman's reputations.


Giuliani refrains from commenting on case

After court was adjourned for the day, Rudy Giuliani told reporters outside court that he would not comment on the case after the judge slammed the remarks he made after court Monday.

"I'm not going to discuss the case anymore because it seemed to get the judge annoyed," he told reporters.

Court will resume Wednesday morning.


Court adjourns for the day

Following Shaye Moss' testimony and the playing of several video depositions, Day 2 of the trial adjourned for the day.

When court resumes on Wednesday, Michael Gottlieb, an attorney for Freeman and Moss, said he plans to show one final deposition video of poll observer Pamela Michelle Branton.

Plaintiffs' attorneys also plan to call an expert witness to testify about the impacts of Giuliani's false accusations, according to court papers filed in the case.


Attorneys play video depositions from Giuliani aides

Attorneys for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss played excerpts from previously recorded video depositions with Trump associate Bernie Kerik and attorneys Christina Bobb, and Jenna Ellis in part to demonstrate Giuliani's leading role in efforts to uncover evidence of systemic election fraud.

They never found it.

Kerik, the former police commissioner in New York City, described a document in the team's legal playbook, which included a section about Freeman. Bobb, a onetime attorney for then-President Trump, described the makeup of Giuliani's legal team.

In the recording of Ellis, a former Trump attorney, she repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination as attorneys for the two women peppered her with questions about her work with Giuliani in the aftermath of the election.


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."