Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani went on trial Monday for defaming two Atlanta election workers with vicious lies tied to former President Donald Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud, setting up a potentially ruinous financial verdict.
The beleaguered former Trump lawyer has already been found liable for defamation and is now facing a jury trial on the mother-and-daughter victims’ demands for up to $43 million in damages.
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss (left), a former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother Ruby Freeman as Moss testifies during the fourth hearing on the January 6th investigation in the Cannon House Office Building on June 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Jury selection started in a Washington, D.C. federal court in what is expected to be a weeklong trial during which Giuliani’s lawyer says he is expected to take the witness stand in his own defense.
The case was brought by election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, who endured a campaign of threats and harassment after Trump and especially Giuliani spread conspiracy theories about them.
Giuliani did not speak to reporters as he entered Washington’s federal courthouse — the same building where Trump is set to stand trial in March on criminal charges accusing the former president of scheming to overturn his loss to President Biden.
The defamation case stems from the false statements Giuliani made about Freeman and Moss in public and during state legislative hearings in December 2020.
“(Freeman and Moss) were quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine (and) engaged in surreptitious illegal activity,” Giuliani said at a Georgia legislative hearing on Dec. 10, 2022.
The claims about the election workers were quickly debunked by Georgia officials, who found no improper counting of ballots and certified Biden’s narrow win in the Peach State.
Freeman and Moss have said the false claims led to a barrage of violent threats and harassment that at one point led Freeman to leave her home for more than two months. In emotional testimony before the congressional January 6 Committee, Moss recounted receiving an onslaught of threatening and racist messages.
Giuliani conceded in July that he spewed lies about Freeman and Moss. But Giuliani argued that the statements were protected by the First Amendment.
U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell found Giuliani liable of defaming the women in August after ruling that he paid “only lip service” to complying with his legal obligations and had failed to turn over crucial information as ordered.
Howell further ruled in October that Giuliani had flagrantly disregarded an order to provide documents concerning his personal and business assets. She said that jurors deciding the amount of damages would be told they must infer that Giuliani was intentionally trying to hide financial documents.
Once lauded as America’s Mayor, Giuliani claims he is now virtually broke. He recently put his plush East Side co-op on the market.
Along with the Atlanta defamation case, Giuliani faces lawsuits from lawyers who claim he stiffed them for fees and a sexual harassment from an ex-aide who says he regularly forced her to have sex with him.
