Rudy Giuliani ordered to pay $148mn to 2020 election workers in defamation case

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who became involved with Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 US presidential vote, must pay a total of $148mn to two electoral workers in Georgia he falsely accused of committing election fraud.

The damages award delivered on Friday concludes a civil trial held in a Washington federal court in which Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss accused Giuliani of defamation, intentionally inflicting emotional distress and conspiring with others to commit these offences.

The penalty is roughly three times the amount requested by Freeman and Moss, who had sought nearly $50mn overall in damages.

“The absurdity of the number merely underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding,” Giuliani told reporters on Friday after the jury’s decision. He said he would appeal against the order.

Freeman and Moss said Giuliani falsely accused them of criminal acts such as excluding observers while ballots were being counted and adding suitcases stuffed with illegal ballots to benefit President Joe Biden.

“Live from Fulton County, let’s watch the Democrats steal the election! And there you see it. Ruby Freeman and her crew getting everybody out of the centre, creating a false story that there was a — that there was a water main break,” Giuliani said on his video podcast in 2021, according to the complaint.

“Take those out of their numbers — Trump won Georgia honestly. We want honest votes here,” he added.

Freeman and Moss said they had been subjected to a barrage of harassment and abuse that upended their lives.

Giuliani on Friday said he “had nothing to do” with the “abominable” and indefensible comments directed at the two women, which he said did not reflect his own remarks. “But I receive comments like that every day,” he added.

Georgia’s state election board in June said an investigation into malfeasance during the 2020 election that involved Freeman and Moss uncovered no violations and showed allegations against them were “unsubstantiated” and had “no merit”.

Giuliani in July admitted that after the 2020 vote, he falsely accused Freeman and Moss of activities including ballot-stuffing to help Biden win Georgia, but argued he was protected by the First Amendment.

The court had already found Giuliani liable in a default judgment after determining he had repeatedly failed to turn over evidence. Judge Beryl Howell, who presided over proceedings in Washington, subsequently set the monetary penalty via a jury trial.

The fine adds to the financial burden on Giuliani, who faces ballooning legal fees as he fights a string of cases that have escalated after supporting Trump’s efforts to throw out the 2020 election. His former lawyers in September sued him for more than $1.3mn in unpaid legal fees — which he said he finds excessive, according to media reports.

Giuliani has also become embroiled in the legal troubles facing his former boss, Trump, over alleged meddling in the 2020 election results. He is among 19 co-defendants in a criminal case filed by the state of Georgia, in which he has pleaded not guilty. He is also believed to be one of six unnamed accomplices in an indictment brought against Trump by the Department of Justice.