Rudy Giuliani ordered to pay US$148m for defamation
A jury ordered Donald Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pay US$148 million in damages on Friday for defaming two Georgia poll workers with his false claims they engaged in election fraud. The eight-person federal jury awarded Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea "Shaye" Moss more than US$16 million each for defamation, US$20 million each for emotional distress and US$75 million in punitive damages. The 79-year-old former New York mayor was found liable in August by US District Judge Beryl Howell of defaming the Fulton County poll workers with his 2020 election lies on behalf of former president Trump. Giuliani, who led Trump's legal efforts to overturn the results of the election, posted a video of the pair that falsely accused them of engaging in fraud during ballot-counting and made numerous other baseless claims about them. Speaking to reporters outside the downtown Washington courthouse following the damages award, Moss said the "past few years have been devastating". "The flame that Giuliani lit with those lies and passed to so many others to keep that flame blazing changed every aspect of our lives, our homes, our family, our work, our sense of safety, our mental health," she said. Freeman said she was thankful that the jury held Giuliani "accountable". "Today is not the end of the road," she said. "We still have work to do. Rudy Giuliani was not the only one who spread lies about us and others must be held accountable too." But Giuliani denounced the huge damages award as "absurd" and told reporters he would appeal. "I am quite confident when this case gets before a fair tribunal it'll be reversed so quickly," he said as a protestor stood nearby holding a sign reading "Big Lie". (AFP)