(CNN) — A Washington, D.C., jury has ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to two Georgia election workers for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.
Ruby Freeman was awarded $16,171,000 for defamation and $20 million for emotional distress. Shaye Moss was awarded $16,998,000 for defamation and $20 million for emotional distress. The jury also awarded $75 million in punitive damages to both plaintiffs.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and onetime attorney to Donald Trump, watched intently as the verdict was read, using a stylus on a touch screen device, apparently taking down notes on the figures he’d been ordered to pay.
After the proceedings ended, Freeman and Moss hugged each other tightly and then every member of their legal team. A feeling of jubilation among the plaintiffs in the courtroom after Giuliani left, Freeman looked especially relieved after the jury forewoman read the numbers, spinning around slightly in her chair and closing her eyes briefly.
Giuliani was found liable this summer for defamation against Freeman and Moss after failing to respond to parts of their lawsuit. The mother and daughter claimed in their case that they have suffered emotional and reputational harm as well as having their safety put in danger after Giuliani singled them out when he made false claims of ballot tampering in Georgia.
During the trial, an attorney for Freeman and Moss showed videos and played audio clips in which Giuliani repeated false claims that the two election workers stuffed ballots and were caught on video allegedly passing a USB drive as part of a vote-stealing scheme.
None of those claims were true, and the supposed USB drive was a ginger mint.
In emotional testimony delivered over the course of two days, Freeman and Moss described the flood of harassing and threatening messages they received after Giuliani and others, including former President Donald Trump, began attacking them. They told the jury how their personal and professional lives were upended by the lies, including through the loss of job opportunities, their communities, and, they said, their personal identities.
“It feels like I’m trapped under someone else’s boot of power,” Moss testified Tuesday. “I can’t do anything, I feel helpless, and the only thing that’s surrounding me is the lies.”
Testifying a day later, Freeman appeared visibly shaken as various threatening messages were shown to the jury and attempted to hold back tears as she read aloud some of them.
“Pack your s–t. They are coming for you. I’m not far behind. I’m coming for you also. Trash will be taken to the street in bags,” one of the messages read.
“I took it as though they were going to cut me up and put me into trash bags and take it out to my street,” Freeman testified.
Giuliani did not testify.
Giuliani attorney Joseph Sibley invoked Giuliani’s legacy as a federal prosecutor in New York and his time as mayor of the city in an attempt to paint his client as a good man who shouldn’t be subjected to the judgment sought by Freeman and Moss.
How much money does Giuliani have?
During the trial, Giuliani has repeatedly highlighted how he doesn’t have funds to pay his various debts or to respond to the case, with Sibley claiming Freeman and Moss are asking for “the civil equivalent of the death penalty.”
“They’re trying to end Mr. Giuliani,” Sibley said.
Because Giuliani hasn’t responded to many subpoenas in the lawsuit, attorneys for Freeman and Moss said in court they couldn’t find a number.
He’s already been fined more than $200,000 for some of Freeman and Moss’ attorneys’ fees, which he hasn’t paid.
Giuliani also owed more than $1 million to defense attorneys who’ve helped him on other matters, prompting them to sue him this year, and hadn’t paid nearly $60,000 for years-oldunpaid phone bills. Yet at times he’s had help – including from Trump – to try to fundraise to offset some of his debts, and he was able to take a private plane to hisarrest on criminal charges related to 2020 election interference in Georgia this summer.
A spokesman for Giuliani declined to comment on Friday on his current financial state.
A few months ago, Giuliani listed his 3-bedroom Manhattan apartment for sale. It’s still on the market, for $6.1 million, according to public real estate listings.
It’s also not clear if Giuliani would be able to declare bankruptcy to shield himself from any sum of damages in this lawsuit. That issue, according to people familiar with the case, may have to be decided by the courts at a later time, and it’s possible he could still be on the hook for the award to Freeman and Moss, even if he goes into bankruptcy.
In a different high-profile defamation case against far-right personality Alex Jones brought by the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, the courts have had to look at this type of issue. That same issue could arise with Giuliani’s case, the sources said.
Jones filed for bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to the shooting victims’ families, but a judge decided this fall he couldn’t use bankruptcy to avoid owing the money.
The-CNN-Wire
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