Trump’s ex-lawyer Giuliani told to pay $148m for defaming election workers
Al Jazeera
Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss faced outpouring of racist and sexist threats after Giuliani’s false claims.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who served as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, has been ordered to pay $148m in damages to two former election workers he defamed with false claims about the 2020 presidential election.
An eight-person federal jury in Washington, DC, said on Friday that Giuliani should pay Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss $75m in punitive damages, plus $36m each for defamation and emotional distress, for falsely claiming that they tried to rig the election against Trump.
The award comes after Freeman and Moss, two former poll workers in Fulton County, Georgia, testified that Giuliani’s false claims had made them the target of a flood of racist and sexist threats.
In court, Moss and Freeman, who are black, described fearing for their lives after being falsely accused of hiding ballots in suitcases, counting votes multiple times and interfering with voting machines.
Freeman testified that she fled her home after the FBI told her she wasn’t safe, and Moss told jurors she rarely leaves her home and suffers from panic attacks.
