Rudy Giuliani.Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
A Washington, D.C., jury has orderedRudy Giulianito pay more than $148 million to two Georgia election workers for defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.
Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani after he publicized a video that claimed to show them rigging the election inJoe Biden’s favor, followingDonald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election.
NBC Newsreports that the women were awarded $20 million each for emotional distress and a total of $75 million in punitive damages. Freeman was awarded $16 million for claims of defamation, while Moss was awarded nearly $17 million.
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, was one of Trump’s most visible lawyers and spent months hosting press conferences and appearing on television and in courtrooms to contest the results of the 2020 election.
Moss, who served as an election worker for more than 10 years, would detail the threats she received in the wake of the video during testimony before theJan. 6 House Select committeein 2022.
“A lot of threats, wishing death upon me, telling me that I’ll be in jail with my mother and saying things like, ‘Be glad it’s 2020 and not 1920.’ A lot of them were racist, a lot of them were hateful,” she said.
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Freeman went on to say that the threats she and her daughter received because of Giuliani’s claims had caused her to live in fear since the election, saying: “I’ve lost my name, I’ve lost my reputation, I’ve lost my sense of security, all because a group of people, starting with 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani, deciding to scapegoat me and my daughter, to push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen.”
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
In that case, Giuliani wascharged with 13 counts, including racketeering and false statements and writings.
The attorney has also made headlines for other controversies, such as when one of his former staffers introduced a series of bombshellaudio transcriptsof the former mayor as part of a lawsuit alleging he forced her to have oral sex and intercourse.
The court filings detail how Giuliani allegedly made a number of sexist, as well as antisemitic and homophobic remarks.
source: people.com
