Rudy Giuliani Ordered To Pay Georgia Poll Workers Nearly $150M For Defamation And Damages
Long-standing associate of former President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, has been ordered to pay nearly $150 million to two Georgia poll workers after making false claims of them tampering with election votes in 2020.
Giuliani was found guilty of making defamatory claims about poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Moss. According to BBC News, the penalty followed a four-day trial, and on Dec. 15, an eight-person jury ordered a hefty payment of $148 million on behalf of the victims. Giuliani was ordered to pay $20 million to each woman for defamation directly. Both Moss and Freeman were awarded $16 million for emotional distress, and the pair must split a payment of $75 million for punitive damages.
Although Moss and Freeman originally sought less than $40 million in their original lawsuit, the courts found Giuliani — who had been Trump’s personal lawyer for years—responsible for much more.
Despite the weighty payments ordered for Giuliani, he expressed no remorse over what he had done. He told reporters after the trial, “I don’t regret a damn thing. Honestly, I didn’t believe [testifying] would do any good.” He continued to affirm that he would be appealing the “absurd penalty.”
Before the jury came back with the award amount, his lawyers urged them to think carefully about the damages they ordered. His legal team acknowledged that Giuliani did in fact defame Moss and Freeman, but claimed he wasn’t as “malicious” as the mother-daughter duo made him to be.
On the other hand, Freeman and Moss’ lawyer Michael Gottlieb said that during the three days of testimony, the jury had only “experienced a sliver of the unspeakable horror that [Ms Freeman and Ms Moss] suffered” and a steep financial penalty was more than necessary in order to correct Giuliani and to “send a message to any other powerful figure with a platform.”
Freeman recounted to the Washington, DC, courtroom the traumatic incident of having to leave her home after a group of Trump supporters bombarded her house and the FBI warned her that she was in active danger from Trump’s supporters.
Freeman said, “I took it as though they were going to hang me with their ropes on my street. I was scared. I didn’t know if they were coming to kill me.”
She explained that she was left completely isolated and in danger after Giuliani shared a video of them online and falsely accused them of tampering with ballots.
“Money will not solve all of my problems,” she added. “I can’t move home, I will always have to be careful… I miss my home, I miss my neighbors and I miss my name.”
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