Ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani must pay US$148 million for defaming poll workers
- He had accused Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss of election fraud and made numerous other baseless claims about them
- The pair testified that Giuliani’s false accusations had completely upended their lives and they were the target of racist threats
A jury ordered Donald Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pay 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 more than US$16 million each for defamation, US$20 million each for emotional distress and US$75 million in punitive damages.
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 US 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”.