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'
Moss says spread of election lies akin to Olympic torch relay
Under cross-examination by Giuliani attorney Joseph Sibley, Shaye Moss was asked how she could be sure that it was his client's remarks that inspired throngs of strangers to level racist and vile threats against her and her family.
Moss said those strangers "were parroting his exact words."
She testified that right-wing news outlet Gateway Pundit and the Trump campaign used language similar to Giuliani's in smearing her.
"It was like the torch for the Olympics," she said. "They pass it from person to person to person."
'I want to receive some type of justice,' Moss testifies
Shaye Moss returned to the witness stand after the midday break to be questioned by Giuliani attorney Joseph Sibley, who asked her about her efforts to rehabilitate her reputation -- probing what steps she has taken to mend her name online.
Moss said she had pays a service $140 per year to monitor her name online and protect her identity, but that "it's incredibly difficult" to repair her reputation "when powerful people keep spewing lies about us."
"How could you work in law if people were saying, like, that you were a horrible lawyer?" Moss asked Sibley.
"You'd be surprised," Sibley quipped.
Asked how much money she believes she is owed for Giuliani's lies, Moss said, "I'm relying on the experts."
"I want to vindicate myself," she said. "I want to receive some type of justice."
Moss says she felt like 'worst mom' for exposing son to racist threats
It wasn't just Moss and Freeman who bore the brunt of Giuliani's false fraud accusations, Shaye Moss testified. Her grandmother and son also suffered after the former mayor falsely accused Moss and Freeman by name.
"I feel like it's my fault. Maybe if I was satisfied being in the mail room ... then maybe it would not have happened," Moss said regarding her promotion to election worker.
Moss said her 16-year-old son struggled in school after being exposed to racist threats against their family -- and went from a comic-obsessed "bookworm" to flunking the ninth grade.
"Racism is real. And it comes out," Moss recalled telling him. "I felt like the worst mom ever to allow him to have to hear this, to experience this day after day after day."
Moss also said she harbors guilt for the treatment of her grandmother. Strangers would repeatedly send pizzas to her house under fake, racist names, Moss testified. The delivery person would expect payment upon arrival, she said.
"My grandmother has lived through all this racist crap. I mean, we're from Georgia ... miles and miles of cotton fields as we drive to the beach," Moss said. "It's history, but we have to go through this."
Ordeal left her with 'major depressive disorder,' says Moss
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.
'Rudy Giuliani is a good man,' his attorney says in closing
Wrapping up his closing statement, Giuliani attorney Joseph Sibley acknowledged that his client must pay something to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, but encouraged the jury to issue a measured punishment -- in spite of how Giuliani has conducted himself this week.
"Rudy Giuliani is a good man," Sibley told the jurors. "I know some of you may not think that, and he hasn't exactly helped himself with some of the things that happened in the last few days."
"I know he's done things that are wrong," Sibley said. "I know these women have been harmed. I'm not asking for a hall pass for that."
Nevertheless, Sibley said, the damages must be "in some way tied to what the actual damages are" and "more closely related to the actual damage number."
"Send a message to America that we can come together with compassion and sympathy," Sibley said. "And I think we need that."