(USNewsBreak.com) – A judge ordered former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, previously found liable for defamation, to pay two Georgia election workers $148 million in December 2023. Acting as a personal attorney for former President Donald Trump, Giuliani had accused a mother and daughter of crimes involving the past presidential election, causing them extreme duress. He recently tried to have the decision overturned or thrown out, but the court upheld the verdict.
In February, Giuliani’s legal team filed a motion asking the court to reverse its findings or grant the former Trump attorney a new trial trial. They claimed the court should have removed some of the testimony from the record and that the women’s attorneys showed no evidence of distress. However, District Judge Beryl Howell denied the motion, claiming it fell “well short of” convincing her that the evidence presented during the trial was “one-sided” or that the jury could not have reached a different verdict.
Rudy Giuliani lost his appeal to dismiss the $148 million verdict handed to him last year in a defamation lawsuit brought by two former Georgia election workers. https://t.co/ynxtZqIXlP
— The Hill (@thehill) April 15, 2024
After the court upheld the ruling, Giuliani and his spokesperson released a statement to Forbes saying, “We’re not at all surprised … This is the expected outcome from a judge who put partisan politics ahead of justice.” Then they announced that they planned to appeal the verdict to the DC Circuit Court, where they felt confident a judge would reverse the damages if they received “a fair hearing that isn’t politically motivated.”
Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shay” Moss sued Giuliani in 2021, claiming they became targets after he accused them of perpetrating fraud in Georgia. Freeman says she felt she had no choice but to sell her home after strangers converged on it, banging on her doors. She lived out of her car for a short time. She also described the numerous threats — including some mentioning lynching — she and her daughter received in the aftermath.
Giuliani has since filed for bankruptcy, a move his political adviser, Ted Goodman, said shouldn’t surprise anyone. The former attorney, with a net worth between $1 and $10 million, said he doesn’t have the money to pay the judgment and debts that total more than $150 million.
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