An Atlanta election worker tearfully testified Tuesday that she feared for her life after Rudy Giuliani spewed lies about her as part of former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
Shaye Moss, who along with her mom is seeking tens of millions in a defamation suit against Giuliani, said the former New York City mayor’s attacks triggered a torrent of racist threats that forced her to change her appearance and go into hiding from MAGA extremist followers.
“I was afraid for my life,” Moss testified. “I literally felt like someone is going to come and attempt to hang me.”
Moss said her life was turned upside down and was unable to function normally after being targeted by Giuliani and Trump.
“My worst nightmare is I will open my door … and there will be a crowd with nooses and pitchforks,” she said, wiping away tears. “And they’re there to get me.”
The dramatic testimony came after Giuliani dug himself into an even deeper legal hole.
Presiding U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell read the riot act to the increasingly mercurial ex-Trump lawyer and NYC mayor for claiming in a Monday night press conference that he told the truth about Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman.
Giuliani told reporters he would testify that he never lied about Moss and Freeman and said he would present evidence that they were involved in voter fraud.
The judge told Giuliani that he potentially opened himself up to another defamation suit for telling the same lies. She warned against putting him on the stand if he plans to repeat more defamatory statements.
Even Giuliani’s defense lawyer seemed at a loss to explain his client’s behavior, suggesting Giuliani may be too old to act properly.
“This has taken a bit of a toll on him. He’s almost 80 years old,” said Joseph Sibley, the attorney.
A lawyer for Moss used Giuliani’s outburst to stress that he has never apologized for his lies and even doubled down on them as the trial continues.
The election worker says she was stunned to see Giuliani accusing her of wrongdoing on a television in the lobby of her hotel as she returned home after the trial ended for the day.
“He was still spreading lies last night,” she testified, adding that she tried not to watch and put her head down in hopes no one recognized her.
Howell has already ruled that Giuliani is liable for defaming Moss and Freeman after he refused to cooperate with their legal demands for evidence. A jury hearing the case will decide how much in damages Giuliani will pay.
The election workers have asked for between $16 and $43 million in compensatory damages, although there is no telling how much the panel could award in punitive damages.
The hounding of Moss and Freeman also plays a key roll in the Georgia state racketeering case against Trump, Giuliani and more than a dozen acolytes, which could land them in prison for up to 20 years.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has charged that the campaign to smear Moss and Freeman was one pillar of a tangled plot engineered by Trump to steal the 2020 election in Georgia and other states.
If Giuliani does testify in the defamation case, his testimony could be used against him in the criminal trial, heightening his legal peril.
The man once lauded as America’s Mayor for his leadership in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks is also facing an increasingly grim financial situation.
He is being sued for unpaid fees by a former lawyer and for alleged sex harassment by an ex-aide who says he forced her to perform oral sex while he talked on the phone with Trump because “it made him feel like Bill Clinton.”
Sibley sought to use Giuliani’s financial woes to evoke sympathy from the jury, asserting that a fat verdict would be like “a death sentence” for the high-flying ex-mayor.
