Legal professionals for Rudy Giuliani are begging jurors to not grant two Georgia election staff the up-to $43 million in damages they’ve requested of their defamation case in opposition to the previous Trump lawyer.
Earlier than the courtroom on Monday, Giuliani’s lawyer Joe Sibley referred to as the proposed damages “the civil equal of the demise penalty.”
“In case you award them what they’re asking for, it will likely be the top of Mr. Giuliani,” he mentioned.
In August, Giuliani was discovered chargeable for defaming Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, two Georgia election staff who he falsely accused of taking part in vote manipulation within the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. A jury trial, which started Monday, will decide how a lot Giuliani owes the 2 girls in damages. Moss and Freeman have requested a sum between $15.3 million and $43 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
The 2 girls have publicly mentioned the repercussions of Giuliani’s conspiracy theories about them. Throughout testimony earlier than the Jan. 6 Committee in June of final yr, Moss recounted how she and her mom have been publicly accused by Giuliani of getting exchanged a “USB drive” filled with votes. When requested what her mom had really handed to her Moss replied that the article was “a ginger mint.”
Moss additionally detailed the numerous threats made in opposition to her by Trump supporters, noting that they have been advised they need to “cling for committing treason.” In response to Moss, individuals went to her grandmother’s house and tried to “burst down the door and conduct a citizen’s arrest of my mother and me.”
Sibley argued on Monday that whereas Giuliani had dedicated defamation, as decided by the courtroom, it was not Giuliani himself who had threatened and harassed Moss and Freeman.
In August, Giuliani was considered one of 18 people indicted alongside former President Donald Trump in a sprawling Georgia RICO case relating to the cohort’s efforts to intervene with the outcomes of the 2020 election within the state. The indictment particularly referenced Giuliani’s function in engineering intimidation and harassment in opposition to Freeman and Moss.
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