Trial Begins in Giuliani Defamation Case to See How Much He Will Pay
WASHINGTON — Jury selection was completed and opening arguments started Monday in a civil trial in Washington, D.C., to determine how much money former Trump lawyer and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani must pay two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of voter fraud.
Their attorneys are asking for as much as $47 million for Giuliani’s defamatory remarks that accused them of submitting suitcases of fraudulent ballots while they were poll workers during the 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani made the accusations while repeating Donald Trump’s statements that the election was stolen from him by voter fraud.
He later admitted his own accusations were inaccurate but said they were protected as free speech under the First Amendment. He said he was speaking about an issue of public interest.
The eight jurors for the trial in federal court were selected from a group of a dozen Washington, D.C., residents.
The three men and five women include an Al Jazeera journalist, a U.S. Forest Service employee, an accountant for the Girl Scouts and a cost analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The mother and daughter who are suing Giuliani gained national attention when Giuliani posted a video showing Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, processing ballots on election night in Atlanta, Georgia.
He said the video showed them processing fake ballots, which was disproved by a Georgia State Election Board investigation.
At one point in the video, Freeman hands Moss something that Giuliani says was a USB flash drive containing records of fraudulent votes. Later evidence showed it was a ginger mint.
A previous civil trial in August in U.S. District Court in Washington determined that Giuliani defamed Freeman and Moss.
The trial that started Monday is supposed to assess the compensation they should be paid for the harassment, threats and mental anguish they say they endured after Giuliani’s public accusations.
A jury also could hit him with punitive damages, which would add to mounting legal problems for the former New York mayor.
He faces criminal charges after being indicted in Georgia on multiple charges of trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election. He is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems after saying the company that provided the voting machines rigged them to give Joe Biden an advantage in the election.
In addition, a former employee is suing Giuliani on sexual assault and harassment charges.
He owes more than $500,000 in unpaid taxes, which prompted the Internal Revenue Service to put a lien on a home he owns in Florida. He also put his New York home up for sale for $6.5 million.
After jury selection was completed, an attorney for Freeman and Moss presented evidence during his opening statements about the harm the women suffered because of defamation by Giuliani. It was repeated by Trump in his Jan. 6, 2021, speech leading to the insurrection at the Capitol and on his social media account.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Von A. DuBose, said, “Mr. Giuliani and his co-conspirators stole the lives of Ms. Moss and Ms. Freeman by destroying their names.”
He played phone recordings in which the women were threatened by people accusing them of treason and threatening to hang them.
They received hundreds of calls, text messages and emails that insulted or threatened them, DuBose said. Some people came to Freeman’s home, pounded on her door and threatened her with “citizen’s arrest.”
She said she was forced to move away from her home for months because of the harassment. Moss said she was unable to work and gained weight as she tried to cope with the stress.
Giuliani’s attorney, Joseph Sibley, denied Giuliani bears complete responsibility for the harassment Freeman and Moss suffered. He said Giuliani never encouraged it.
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