The former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, was fined $146 million by a federal court for defaming two election workers in Georgia. The judge expressed worry that Giuliani may not pay up as ordered and hinted that Giuliani may have been less than honest with his financial records.
Two days ago, the judge ordered Giuliani to pay $146 million to two poll workers, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss. In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Giuliani made baseless accusations that they participated in a fraudulent vote processing scheme while working for the election.
Wednesday, Judge Beryl Howell delivered a harsh decision that cast doubt on Giuliani’s claims that he lacked the financial means to pay a substantial sum as an award. Howell lowered the damage amount from $148 million to $145,969,000 due to a prior settlement that Freeman and Moss had with the right-wing cable news program OAN.
According to his counsel, paying the $48 million in damages sought initially by Freeman and Moss “will be the end” of Giuliani’s financial future. But the jury returned with a verdict of $100 million more than they had asked for.
Giuliani persisted in spreading the allegations about the two ladies being involved in an electoral scheme even after the jury reached their verdict. Freeman and Shaye Moss demanded that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia permanently ban Giuliani from “persisting in his slanderous campaign” against them in a new lawsuit they filed three days after the defamation case ended.
According to Howell’s order on Wednesday, the customary 30-day waiting time to collect on a judgment was waived.
This ruling puts Giuliani, who was an outspoken supporter of Trump’s baseless accusations of election fraud—which are now central to the criminal prosecutions against the ex-president—in even more financial and legal jeopardy.
Costly investigations and lawsuits arising from Giuliani’s defense of Trump have already begun to burden his finances.
