A lawyer for former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said Thursday his client will not testify in the trial to determine damages in the civil defamation lawsuit brought by two former Georgia election workers.
Giuliani had been slated to be the only witness for the defense.
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who are mother and daughter, are seeking between $15.5 million and $43 million from Giuliani for defamation, according to court documents, after Giulini admitted he lied when he accused them of election fraud.
Freeman and Moss each took the stand during the trial, testifying that Giuliani’s false accusations against them tore their lives apart, forcing them to move from their hometown after the lies sparked a barrage of threats.
“I miss my old neighborhood because I was me. I could introduce myself. Now I don’t have a name really,” Freeman said under oath.
Their statements follow Moss’ testifimony in June 2022 during a televised hearing of the House Select January 6 Committee. She revealed how a mob of Trump supporters had targeted her and her mother, both online and in person, after consuming debunked conspiracy theories about their actions on Election Day 2020, to the point where Moss said she and Freeman felt safe “nowhere.”
Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York City who was advising Trump on efforts to overturn the 2020 election, falsely claimed that Moss and Freeman could bee seen on video passing USB drives “like vials of heroin or cocaine” while counting ballots in Fulton County, Georgia.
Moss testified to Congress that what her mother was actually passing to her was “a ginger mint.”
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell has already found Giuliani liable for defamation. In September Howell fined the former Trump attorney and his businesses more than $132,000 for failing to hand over discovery to the election workers’ legal team, and an additional $104,000 to the pair for their legal expenses. The defamation damages, once determined by the jury, will be levied against Giuliani on top of Howell’s fines.
PHOTO: Rudy Giuliani falsely accusing Freeman & Moss, per January 6 Committee Hearing
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