An attorney for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, had urged the eight-person jury to “send a message” with its verdict.

An attorney for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, had urged the eight-person jury to “send a message” with its verdict.

Rudy Giuliani should pay a pair of Georgia election workers he repeatedly and falsely accused of fraud $148 million in damages, a federal jury said Friday.

The eight-person jury awarded Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, the sum after a four-day trial, during which they testified that Giuliani’s lies in support of former President Donald Trump’s bogus stolen-election claims subjected them to a torrent of racist and violent threats and turned their lives upside down.

Freeman testified Wednesday that she was terrorized by Trump supporters and forced to move from her home because of Giuliani’s smears. “I was scared to come home at dark, you know,” a visibly emotional Freeman said on the witness stand. “I was just scared, I knew I had to move.”

  • perviouslyinerEnglish
    2·
    6 months ago

    That’s way above the “tens of millions” that some commentators were predicting based off the filings - maybe they didn’t include the punitive damages? Or did the judge cause a surprise with the number?

    • Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world
      51·
      6 months ago

      The jury decided the numbers. Tbh the actual damages seem high for the defamation. I’m not sure how they proved they had direct financial or reputational damage of over $16M each. The emotional distress is also high at $20M each, but tbh this shit did put them through hell so I could see that.

      • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
        10·
        6 months ago

        The jury decided the punitive damages should be, well…punitive. They added $100 million on to the requested compensatory damages because clearly they wanted to drive home the point that lying, scumbag, decrepit, pieces of human garbage who try to justify overthrowing the government by claiming fraud and then blaming that fraud on random election workers should get fucked for life.

        • perviouslyinerEnglish
          4·
          6 months ago

          “please decide an amount that would prevent anyone in a similar situation as the defendant from doing this again”

          (defendent literally repeats the defamatory statement at the entrance to the courtroom)

          Jury: “well shit. we need to exponentiate this dollar value”

      • dirthawker0@lemmy.world
        5·
        6 months ago

        I think if they want, they ought to be able to afford bodyguards for the next 10-20 years to regain a sense of security after the hell they’ve been through.

      • Garbanzo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        6 months ago

        the actual damages seem high for the defamation

        I dunno, they’re gonna need to invest in a lot of security to ever be comfortable again. It’s not like there’s any other remedy, you can’t call off a lunatic cult after you’ve sicced them on someone.