Rudy Giuliani, the politician once hailed as “America’s mayor” but who became embroiled in the fabrication of Donald Trump’s election denial, faces a jury in Washington DC on Monday in a landmark case in which he could face millions of dollars in damages.
For the first time, Giuliani will face the consequences of the conspiracy theories he spread as Trump's lawyer during the 2020 election in federal district court. He will come face to face with Georgia poll workers, a mother and her daughter, who say he destroyed their lives and caused them lasting emotional distress by maliciously accusing them of voter fraud.
The stakes in this civil case are extremely high. Plaintiffs are asking the jury to award up to $43 million in damages as punishment for Giuliani's “outrageous conduct.”
Legal experts and democracy activists will also be watching closely to see whether a rarely used defamation suit can act as a deterrent to anyone considering another round of voter refusal in next year's presidential election and beyond. It could also have implications for the organized crime prosecution of Rico, which Giuliani faces in Fulton County, Georgia, and which is also related to his actions in the 2020 election.
After jury selection and opening arguments on Monday, the DC trial will feature three days of testimony. Topping the witness list are the poll workers themselves, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss.
“While the damage Giuliani and his allies have done to the lives, livelihoods and safety of our clients cannot be fully repaired, they are eager and ready for their day in court to continue their fight for accountability,” said the women's legal representatives at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan advocacy group.
Freeman and Moss became household names after giving a moving televised account of the House investigation into the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. They recounted how their lives were turned upside down by Giuliani's relentless attacks.
“Be glad it’s 2020 and not 1920,” Moss, an African-American, said at the hearing, referring to the history of lynching in the Deep South.
Giuliani has already been found guilty by presiding judge Beryl Howell of defaming the election workers, intentionally causing them emotional distress, and conspiring with at least two others to defame them. It is now up to the jury to decide how much damages to award.
Giuliani defamed election workers by falsely accusing them of criminal misconduct during the crucial vote count in the presidential election at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Georgia is one of the most important swing states in the 2020 presidential race. The 16 votes in the Electoral College could decide whether Trump or Joe Biden will be the next occupant of the White House.
As part of the Trump team's extensive effort to rig the vote count and thwart Biden's victory, Giuliani targeted Freeman and Moss, helping to circulate a misleadingly edited tape of surveillance footage from the arena that he falsely claimed showed them stealing votes for Biden.
He promoted the “Suitcase Gate” conspiracy theory – a video that falsely claimed to show poll workers taking fake ballots from suitcases stored under their desks and then counting them “three, four, five, six, seven times…” The court will be shown a sample of the ginger mint that Freeman gave Moss during the counting process – Giuliani claimed was a USB stick used to alter the vote count on electronic counting machines.
His wild claims were completely refuted by Georgia state authorities at the time they were made. In June, a comprehensive investigation by the state's Board of Elections cleared Freeman and Moss of any wrongdoing and dismissed Giuliani's fraud allegations as “baseless.”
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Despite official opposition, Giuliani continued to attack the couple. In a testimony lasting several hours, the mother and daughter will describe to the jury the flood of death threats and harassment that they and their families have suffered – and continue to suffer – in the course of the smear campaign.
As a result, they had to leave their homes, go into hiding and change their appearance. Moss gave up her job as a poll worker.
Giuliani's lawyers have indicated that he may testify in person at the trial, and if he does, he will not be allowed to repeat any of the defamatory slurs about the plaintiffs since he has already admitted to defaming them.
However, his lawyers have indicated that he will try to prove that his actions had minimal relevance to the barrage of threats of violence and harassment the women endured, in the hope of minimizing the damages awarded by the jury.
Several other former members of Trump's 2020 re-election campaign legal team are also likely to be called during the trial and have their testimony drawn from sworn depositions. They include former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, Jenna Ellis, who was charged along with Giuliani in the Rico case in Fulton County, and Christina Bobb.
Court documents show that during her testimony, Ellis refused to answer questions from Freeman and Moss's attorneys, invoking her right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution 448 times.
