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'
Job prospects deteriorated after accusations, Moss testifies
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."
Moss, through tears, describes life after Giuliani's accusations
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
Moss says seeing election fraud claims made her 'immediately fearful'
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.
Shaye Moss describes election job as 'winning the golden ticket'
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."
Jury will continue deliberations on Friday
Jurors deliberated for more than three hours this afternoon without reaching a verdict on the amount of damages Rudy Giuliani will have to pay Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
"The jury's ready to go home," Judge Howell told attorneys for both parties at 5 p.m. ET.
The jury will return Friday morning to continue their deliberations.