A hearing to be held in Washington on Monday will determine how much Rudy Giuliani will have to pay two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of fraud while rejecting Donald Trump’s baseless claims after he lost the 2020 election.
The former mayor of New York City has already been found liable in a defamation lawsuit brought by Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, who suffered threats and harassment after they were targeted by conspiracy theories spread by Trump and his allies.
The only issue to be determined at the trial – which will begin with jury selection in Washington federal court – is the amount of damages, if any, Giuliani must pay.
The case is among many mounting legal and financial troubles for Giuliani, who was celebrated as “America’s Mayor” after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and became one of Trump’s fiercest campaigners of election lies after he lost to President Joe Biden.
This booking photo provided by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office shows Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, in Atlanta, after he surrendered and was booked. AP
Giuliani was also criminally charged along with Trump and others in the Georgia case accusing them of trying to illegally overturn the state’s election results.
He pleaded not guilty and insisted he had the right to raise questions about what he believed to be electoral fraud.
He was sued in September by a former lawyer who claims Giuliani paid only a fraction of the roughly $1.6 million in legal fees stemming from the investigation into his efforts to keep Trump in the White House.
And the judge overseeing the election workers’ claims has already ordered Giuliani and his business entities to pay tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees.
Wandrea Moss, a former Georgia election worker, becomes emotional while testifying as her mother Ruby Freeman looks on during the fourth hearing held by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol on June 21, 2022. Getty Images
Moss has worked for the Fulton County elections department since 2012 and oversaw absentee ballot operations during the 2020 election.
Freeman is a temporary election employee, verifying signatures on absentee ballots and preparing them for counting and processing.
Giuliani and other Trump allies seized on surveillance footage to disprove conspiracy theories that election workers removed fake ballots from suitcases.
The allegations were quickly denied by Georgia election officials, who found no improper vote counting.
Voting machines filled the space for early voting at the Ladang Negeri Arena, Oct. 12. 2020, in Atlanta. AP
The woman said the false allegations led to a barrage of threats and harassment that, at one point, forced Freeman to leave her home for more than two months.
In emotional testimony before the US House Committee investigating the US Capitol attack, Moss described receiving an onslaught of threatening and racist messages.
In her August ruling placing Giuliani in charge of the case, US District Judge Beryl Howell said he had only given “lip service” to comply with his legal obligations and had failed to hand over information requested by the mother and daughter.
A judge in October said that Giuliani had blatantly ignored orders to produce documents about his personal and business assets.
He said that jurors deciding the amount of damages will be told they must “conclude” that Giuliani intentionally tried to hide financial documents in hopes of “artificially reducing his net worth.”
Giuliani admitted in July that he made public comments falsely alleging Freeman and Moss committed fraud to try to change the outcome of the race during the vote count at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
But Giuliani argued that the statement was protected by the First Amendment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
