Rudy Giuliani arrives on the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a trial to find out how a lot he should pay two 2020 Georgia election employees who he falsely accused of fraud.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

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Jose Luis Magana/AP

Rudy Giuliani arrives on the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a trial to find out how a lot he should pay two 2020 Georgia election employees who he falsely accused of fraud.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Former Trump marketing campaign legal professional Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to pay a staggering $148 million to 2 former Georgia election employees he unfold lies about following the 2020 election.

The resolution comes on the finish of a week-long federal civil trial in Washington D.C., the place an eight-person jury heard from the employees — Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mom Ruby Freeman — about how 2020 election conspiracies unfold by Giuliani and former President Donald Trump turned their lives the wrong way up.

“I was afraid for my life,” Moss stated throughout her testimony on Tuesday. “I literally felt that someone would attempt to hang me and there was nothing anyone could do about it.”

Jurors heard quite a few violent and racist voicemails the ladies obtained, after Giuliani used his huge platform as a marketing campaign legal professional for Trump to unfold lies about their actions as election employees in Georgia.

In the time after voting led to 2020, Giuliani shared video from an absentee poll counting facility in Fulton County, which he falsely claimed confirmed the 2 girls dishonest and scanning ballots a number of instances to profit Joe Biden.

A hand-count audit in Georgia discovered votes to have been tallied accurately within the 2020 election, and a years-long investigation by the Georgia secretary of state’s workplace discovered the accusations towards Moss and Freeman to be “false and unsubstantiated.”

“There was no evidence that suggested they did anything wrong, except show up for work and work hard,” testified Frank Braun, who oversaw the investigation for the secretary of state’s workplace.

In August, district Judge Beryl Howell found Giuliani chargeable for defamation, on account of his lack of cooperation within the case, and Giuliani conceded as a part of the proceedings that his statements about Moss and Freeman have been false.

So the trial this week was solely held to find out the damages Moss and Freeman have been owed.

It’s not the one authorized bother for Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and two-term New York City mayor, associated to his efforts to subvert Georgia’s 2020 election. He faces greater than a dozen fees within the racketeering investigation introduced by the Fulton County district legal professional.

Throughout the week-long civil trial, attorneys for Moss and Freeman enumerated the broad attain of election lies and the numerous methods these lies ruined the lives of the 2 girls. An knowledgeable witness specializing in advertising and social media estimated that the related falsehoods reached tens of thousands and thousands of individuals, and {that a} strategic communications marketing campaign to restore the ladies’s reputations may price as a lot as $47.4 million.

Freeman broke down crying Wednesday as she described leaving her residence after receiving a warning from the FBI that her life may very well be in danger.

“Ruby Freeman. I hope the federal government hangs you and your daughter from the Capitol dome,” stated one message Freeman obtained on the time. “I pray that I will be sitting close enough to hear your necks snap!”

Freeman stated she now not feels comfy introducing herself to anybody.

“The only thing you have in life is your name,” Freeman stated. “My life is messed up, all because of someone putting my name out there.”

Giuliani’s protection legal professional, Joseph Sibley, argued all through the week that whereas the previous mayor did unfold falsehoods about Moss and Freeman, many different retailers and other people did too, so Giuliani should not bear the complete brunt of how these lies manifested.

“Mr. Sibley has a hard job,” stated Judge Howell at one level, after it got here out that Giuliani had continued to lie concerning the girls whereas speaking to reporters on the courthouse steps earlier within the week. Giuliani declined to testify as a part of the trial, nonetheless.

Tammy Patrick, an election knowledgeable and former Arizona election official, stated she has been heartened that these concerned within the efforts to overturn the 2020 election have begun to face consequences. With the 2024 election quick approaching, she stated she’s optimistic candidates will assume twice subsequent yr about mendacity about elections and the individuals who administer them.

“We need to hold people accountable and we need to remove the incentives,” Patrick stated. “We need to embrace the truth in this country.”