Former Trump lawyer ordered to pay $148 million for defamation Tabloid hacked Harry’s cell phone – now the prince has scored a partial victory

“America’s Mayor” has fallen deeply. On Friday, a federal court in Washington ordered the former mayor of New York to pay more than $148 million in damages. With this impressive amount, 79-year-old Rudy Giuliani must compensate two election workers whom he publicly accused of fraud in 2020.

The names of the two women are Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, they are mother and daughter. During the presidential elections just over three years ago, the two African-American women helped count votes in the Atlanta (Georgia) region. After Republican Donald Trump narrowly lost the politically contentious state to Democrat Joe Biden, they were targeted by angry fans of the president-elect.

Giuliani alleged for the first time during a parliamentary hearing in Georgia that the two women played a role in the alleged election fraud. He compared them to drug dealers and called them common thieves. His friend Donald Trump later took up these accusations; During the president-elect’s ominous phone call with Georgia’s Interior Minister in January 2021, he called Freeman “a professional fraudster and swindler.”

When the Washington Post published the call on January 3, the two women were literally inundated with nasty insults and threatening phone calls. “I hope the federal government will hang her and her daughter in the Capitol, you treasonous piece of shit,” said one anonymous caller, for example. They had to go into hiding.

Giuliani remains unmoved

Federal Judge Beryl Howell ruled this summer that Giuliani had defamed the two women. The trial in Washington, which started on Monday, therefore only revolved around the question of how much compensation should be paid to Freeman and Moss. The mother and daughter had sought at least $48 million in damages.

Giuliani, for his part, remained unmoved after the verdict was announced. He called the amount he has to pay to the plaintiffs absurd. He also complained about the unfair judge who would not let him speak. He therefore announced that he would appeal the verdict.

Giuliani would have been able to defend himself in court on Thursday. But he renounced it. Instead, he spoke outside the courthouse in Washington early this week. “I told the truth,” he said of his accusations against the two accusers. Freeman and Moss committed election fraud and robbed Trump of his victory.

This is now costing him dearly, although it is unclear how much money the former top politician still has. In Washington and New York it is said that Giuliani is bankrupt and can no longer pay his lawyers. “America’s Mayor,” celebrated as a superhero after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has fallen deeply. (aargauerzeitung.ch)