Key Points
- Donald Trump’s former lawyer has been ordered to pay A$221 million in damages in a defamation case.
- He says the amount is absurd and has vowed he will appeal.
- Election worker Wandrea Moss says she hopes no other election worker experiences what she did.
A jury ordered Donald Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pay A$221 million (US$148 million) in damages on Friday for defaming two Georgia poll workers with his false claims they engaged in election fraud.
The eight-person federal jury awarded Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss about A$109 million (US$73 million) to compensate them for the reputational and emotional harm they suffered and UA$112 million (S$75 million) in punitive damages.
“Today’s a good day. A jury stood witness to what Rudy Giuliani did to me and my daughter and held him accountable,” Freeman told reporters outside the courthouse on Friday, adding “others must be held accountable, too.”.
The 79-year-old Giuliani was found liable in August of defaming the Fulton County poll workers with his 2020 election lies on behalf of former president Trump.
Giuliani, who led Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the results of the election, posted a video of the pair that falsely accused them of engaging in fraud during ballot-counting and made numerous other baseless claims about them.
Speaking to reporters following the damages award, Moss said the “past few years have been devastating.”
“The flame that Giuliani lit with those lies and passed to so many others to keep that flame blazing changed every aspect of our lives, our homes, our family, our work, our sense of safety, our mental health,” she said.
She said the decision shows that election workers do not deserve the treatment they experienced as a result of Giuliani’s claims.
“As we move forward and continue to seek justice, our greatest wish is that no one, no election worker or voter or school board member or anyone else ever experiences anything like what we went through,” Moss went on to say. “You all matter and you are all important. We hope no one ever has to fight so hard just to get your name back.”
Fulton County election workers Shaye Moss (white coat) and Ruby Freeman sued Giuliani for defamation after they were harassed following Giuliani’s false election claims. Source: AAP / Jim Lo Scalzo
Giuliani to appeal
Giuliani denounced the damages award as “absurd” and told reporters he would appeal.
“The absurdity of the number underscores the absurdity of the entire proceedings,” he said.
Giuliani also appeared to double down on his baseless allegations against the 64-year-old Freeman and the 39-year-old Moss.
“I have no doubt that my comments were made and they were supportable and are supportable today,” he said. “I just did not have an opportunity to present the evidence that we offered.”
Freeman and Moss, who are Black, testified during the four-day trial that the false accusations of election fraud made against them by Giuliani had completely upended their lives and they were the target of vile racist threats.
Legal challenges
The defamation case is just one of a number of legal challenges facing Giuliani, who has been indicted on racketeering charges in Georgia along with Trump and others for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state.
Giuliani was New York mayor from 1994 to 2001, guiding the city through the shock of the September 11 attacks and becoming known as “America’s Mayor” – before signing up as Trump’s personal lawyer while he was in the White House.
Giuliani’s license to practice law has been suspended in New York and in Washington for “false and misleading statements” he made as part of his efforts to overturn the results of the election won by Joe Biden.
Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, has also filed a lawsuit against Giuliani accusing him of computer fraud for accessing personal data on his computer.
In 2020, in a bid to embarrass Biden ahead of the election, Giuliani and Trump allies circulated data from a laptop that Hunter Biden had abandoned at a computer repair shop in Delaware.
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