Rudy Giuliani ordered to pay nearly $150 million in damages

We’ve wrapped up our live coverage. You can read more about the Giuliani verdict here, or scroll through the posts below.

A Washington, DC, jury on Friday ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay more than $148 million to two Georgia election workers for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made following the 2020 election.  

It is the latest payout in a string of other high-profile defamation cases in recent years.

Here are some of them:

Sandy Hook families v. Alex Jones 

Dominion v. Fox News 

Amber Heard and Johnny Depp 

Cardi B v. Tasha K  

A sketch shows the scene inside the courtroom as the verdict is read in the defamation trial of Rudy Giuliani on Friday.

Courtroom sketch artist Bill Hennessy captured the scene inside the courtroom as the verdict was being read in the defamation damages trial against Rudy Giuliani. No cameras were allowed during the proceedings.

A jury ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and Ruby Freeman for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.

Rudy Giuliani listens to the verdict being read.

The verdict is read in the defamation damages trial.

Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and Ruby Freeman listen to the verdict.

Mike Gottlieb, the attorney for Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, said the verdict that ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to the women sends a message to other people in power that they will not get away with spreading lies.

“The message that this sends is, you will not get away with it,” he told CNN, specifically referencing people “willing to trample” civil servants like election workers.

Pushing back against Giuliani’s claims that the threats and messages Moss and Freeman received did not come from him, Gottlieb said the former Trump lawyer was “patient 0” for the lies.

He specifically referenced the Georgia Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on December 3, 2020, in which Giuliani, then a Trump lawyer, spread conspiracy theories about what he referred to as widespread irregularities and fraud in the state.

Gottlieb said “if they would have taken just a moment to ask some questions” or interview poll observers who were there, instead of releasing a video Giuliani claimed showed fraud, “none of this would’ve happened.”

After emotional testimony in the courtroom by Moss and Freeman, Gottlieb said he is happy for his clients for standing up for themselves and other election workers.

“To be able to stand up, to go into court, to testify under oath and to open themselves up and to prevail — this kind of a message from a jury is just complete vindication for everything they have done, and we’re just thrilled,” Gottlieb said.

The lawyer said he will enforce the judgment and is not worried about an appeal, which Giuliani has said he will seek.

Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, left, speaks with reporters, with Ruby Freeman, center, outside federal court on Friday in Washington, DC.

Wandrea “Shaye” Moss thanked a Washington, DC, jury Friday after Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay nearly $150 million to her and her mother for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election. 

“We’re very grateful to the jury for taking the time out of their busy lives to do their civic duty, to listen to everything that we’ve been going through,” she said during a news conference following the verdict. “I know I won’t be able to retire from my job with the county like my grandmother did, but I hope by us taking these steps, these very big steps, towards justice that I can make her just as proud.”

Moss said Giuliani’s lies “changed every aspect of our lives.”

“We’re still working to rebuild,” she said.

CNN’s Mary Kay Mallonee contributed reporting to this post.

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Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss speak outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Courthouse on December 15, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Ruby Freeman said “today is a good day” after a jury ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay her and daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss for the harm they’ve suffered stemming from a series of defamatory statements Giuliani made about them following the 2020 election.

In the trial, Freeman and Moss described the flood of harassing and threatening messages they received after Giuliani and others, including former President Donald Trump, began attacking them. They told the jury how their personal and professional lives were upended by the lies, including through the loss of job opportunities, their communities, and, they said, their personal identities.

She told supporters not to be sad for her and her daughter, and not to waste their time being angry.

“If you remember one thing I say today, remember this: Faith is what carried us through the most difficult years of my life, and faith will help carry you through hardships that you face in your life,” Freeman said.

CNN’s Mary Kay Mallonee contributed reporting to this post.

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CNN legal analyst Elie Honig told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” that $75 million in punitive damages awarded to two Georgia election workers is intended to “send a message to Rudy Giuliani and to the general public.”

“I think that’s exactly what the jury did here,” Honig said. 

“When we think about the inequities in this case, when we think about an extraordinarily powerful, remorseless liar like Rudy Giuliani, compared to these women or civil servants, they never signed up for this. Their lives were turned over and I think that’s why you see such a high number here from the jury,” Honig continued. 

Giuliani has been ordered to pay nearly $150 million to Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.

Rudy Giuliani departs from US District Courthouse after a verdict was reached in his defamation jury trial on December 15, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Rudy Giuliani said he felt like the defamation damages trial against him was unfair and tried to downplay his role in the threats he made against Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman.

A jury ordered Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to the Georgia election workers for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.

“Very little I can say right now,” he said outside the courtroom after the verdict was read on Friday.

“The absurdity of the number underscores the absurdity of the entire proceedings,” he said, referring to the money he was ordered to pay. He said he felt like he didn’t get to offer evidence in his defense. 

Giuliani, at one point shushing the crowd of reporters, said, “The comments they received, I had nothing to do with.”

He admitted the threats Moss and Freeman testified about receiving were “abominable, they’re deplorable,” but he said it happens a lot in politics and that he receives “comments like that every day.”

“My comments weren’t that,” Giuliani said, asserting the trial was unfair. The former Trump lawyer said he will appeal and possibly move for a new trial.

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig pushed back on Giuliani’s assertion that he didn’t get to offer evidence in his defense. Giuliani had already been found liable for defamation, Honig said, meaning he and his lawyer put on paper they were not contesting that part.

“Then in the trial we just had about damages, he had ample opportunity to put in evidence in his own defense. He did put in some evidence in his own defense, he just chose not to take the stand,” Honig said in his analysis.

On the comments that Giuliani said he gets threats every day, Honig said it is not a fair comparison.

“The threats these women received were particularly vile, racist and virulent,” he said. “Rudy Giuliani is a public figure. He puts himself out there.”

“Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss did not make themselves public figures,” Honig added, saying they were civil servants who were just counting votes.

Rudy Giuliani speaks to the press as he leaves the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Courthouse on December 11, in Washington, DC.

During the trial, Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly highlighted how he doesn’t have funds to pay his various debts or to respond to the case, with his attorney Joseph Sibley claiming Freeman and Moss are asking for “the civil equivalent of the death penalty.”

“They’re trying to end Mr. Giuliani,” Sibley said.

Because Giuliani hasn’t responded to many subpoenas in the lawsuit, attorneys for Freeman and Moss said in court they couldn’t find a number.

He was previously fined more than $200,000 for some of Freeman and Moss’ attorneys’ fees, which he hasn’t paid.

Giuliani also owed more than $1 million to defense attorneys who’ve helped him on other matters, prompting them to sue him this year, and hadn’t paid nearly $60,000 for years-old unpaid phone bills. Yet at times he’s had help – including from Trump – to try to fundraise to offset some of his debts, and he was able to take a private plane to his arrest on criminal charges related to 2020 election interference in Georgia this summer.

A spokesman for Giuliani declined to comment on Friday on his current financial state.

A few months ago, Giuliani listed his 3-bedroom Manhattan apartment for sale. It’s still on the market, for $6.1 million, according to public real estate listings.

It’s also not clear if Giuliani would be able to declare bankruptcy to shield himself from any sum of damages in this lawsuit. That issue, according to people familiar with the case, may have to be decided by the courts at a later time, and it’s possible he could still be on the hook for the award to Freeman and Moss, even if he goes into bankruptcy.

In a different high-profile defamation case against far-right personality Alex Jones brought by the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, the courts have had to look at this type of issue. That same issue could arise with Giuliani’s case, the sources said.

Jones filed for bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to the shooting victims’ families, but a judge decided this fall he couldn’t use bankruptcy to avoid owing the money.

Rudy Giuliani watched intently as the verdict was read, but continued to use a stylus on a touch screen device, apparently taking notes on the figures he’s been ordered to pay.

Ruby Freeman looked especially relieved after the numbers were read, spinning around slightly in her chair and closing her eyes briefly. 

For her part, even Judge Beryl Howell appeared taken aback by the high figure.

And after the proceedings ended, Freeman and Moss hugged each other tightly. They then each took turns hugging members of their legal team. There was a feeling of jubilation in the courtroom after Giuliani left and the plaintiffs celebrated their win. 

Rudy Giuliani arrives to the US District Court for his defamation case brought by two Fulton County election workers in Washington, DC, on December 14.

A Washington, DC, jury has ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to two Georgia election workers for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.  

Here’s the breakdown:

Rudy Giuliani arrives to the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Courthouse on December 15, in Washington, DC.

An eight-person jury has reached a verdict in Rudy Giuliani’s defamation damages trial in federal court in Washington, DC, the judge announced Friday afternoon.

The jury has been tasked with deciding how much the former New York mayor must pay two former Georgia election workers for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.  

The plaintiffs – Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss – are asking for $24 million apiece in compensatory damages. Their attorney said he would leave it to the jury to consider how much Giuliani should be ordered to pay the mother and daughter for emotional and punitive damages. 

Jurors began deliberations on Thursday afternoon.

The lawyers and parties in Rudy Giuliani’s defamation damages trial are assembling in court in anticipation of a verdict from the eight-person jury in federal court in Washington, DC.

The jury has been tasked with deciding how much the former Trump lawyer must pay two former Georgia election workers for the harm caused by the conspiracy theories and false claims he spread about them after the 2020 election.

Rudy Giuliani arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman US District Courthouse on December 14, in Washington, DC.

Rudy Giuliani did not testify in his defense Thursday at the defamation damages trial stemming from a case brought by two Georgia election workers in federal court in Washington, DC.

This came after he and his lawyer said repeatedly that he would take the stand. It also comes after the former election workers —Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss — gave hours of emotional, chilling testimony to the jury this week.

Freeman and Moss asked the eight-person jury to order Giuliani to pay them millions of dollars in damages for the emotional and reputational harm they say they’ve suffered.

Wednesday evening, Giuliani had expected to appear. “I intend to. You always leave them guessing, right?” he told reporters.

The case has refocused attention on the human impact of disinformation spread by Trump and his allies after the 2020 election as the former president awaits his own criminal trial in the same courthouse.

Giuliani has already been found liable for defamation and owes Freeman and Moss over $230,000 after failing to respond to parts of their lawsuit

In this June 2022 photo, Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother, Ruby Freeman, right during a hearing at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

Rudy Giuliani didn’t see two former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss as “human beings” when he spread conspiracy theories about them after the 2020 election, their attorney told a Washington, DC, jury Thursday during closing arguments in the defamation damages trial.

Gottlieb also said that there was a time in Giuliani’s life when, as mayor of New York, he understood and appreciated that civil servants were decent people.

“He has no right to offer defenseless civil servants over to a digital mob,” Gottlieb said.

Giuliani spent nearly the entirety of Gottlieb’s closing argument apparently not paying attention. Instead, for more than an hour he was intently reading news stories on a touch-screen laptop he had propped on the defense table in front of him, squinting and highlighting large portions of what he was reading with a stylus.

Giuliani’s attorney argued during his closing remarks that Freeman and Moss saw the former New York mayor as having “deep pockets.”

More on the trial: Giuliani has already been found liable for defamation and owes Freeman and Moss over $230,000 after failing to respond to parts of their lawsuit. now, Freeman and Moss are seeking $24 million apiece in reputational damages, as well as punitive and emotional damages in the case.

Ruby Freeman listens on June 21, 2022 in Washington, DC.

In emotional testimony during the defamation damages trial against Rudy Giuliani, two Georgia election workers described the flood of threats they received after Giuliani and others disseminated lies about them.

During the trial on Wednesday, the lawyer for Ruby Freeman, one of the election workers, had her review for the jury some of the racist messages she received following the 2020 election.

“Hope they lock you up and throw away the key, you disgusting B*tch traitor,” one of the messages read.

“I received so many on my phone that at one time my phone crashed and just died,” Freeman testified.

She appeared visibly shaken as the various messages were shown. She read aloud from some of them, at times appearing to hold back tears.

“I took it as though they were going to cut me up and put me into trash bags and take it out to my street,” Freeman said.

A day earlier, Moss similarly walked the jury through how her life had changed after Giuliani began attacking the two women.

Though Moss shared much of her experience as a victim of conspiracy theories with the House select committee that investigated January 6, 2021, her testimony Tuesday was perhaps the most detailed public account she’s given about that period of her life.

“I am most scared of my son finding me and or my mom hanging outside my house on a tree, or having to get the news at school that his momma was killed,” Moss said. “That’s what I’m most afraid of.”

A recording of former President Donald Trump discussing Ruby Freeman — one of the Georgia election workers who is suing Rudy Giuliani for defamation — was played in court during the trial.

Freeman testified about how conspiracy theories spread by the former president and Giuliani led to a torrent of harassing and threatening messages. 

The recording was of a call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump said Freeman’s name 18 times, attacking her as he repeated election-related lies about her. 

“He had no clue what he was talking about,” she added. “He was just trying to put a name with a lie.”

Freeman’s testimony was about the reputational harm she says was caused by Giuliani spreading conspiracy theories about her following the election. She said the statements by both the former New York mayor and Trump had a profound impact on her personal and professional life.

Trump is not a party in the defamation case.