12/15/2023 10:57 pm (current 12/15/2023 11:00 pm)
False allegations against election workers cost Giuliani dearly ©APA/AFP
According to media reports, Rudy Giuliani, former private lawyer for former US President Donald Trump, was ordered to pay $148 million (€135.54 million) in damages for defamation. The verdict was announced on Friday, according to US media, after two election officials sued Giuliani over a video in which he falsely accused them of voter fraud following the November 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani must therefore pay both plaintiffs nearly $37 million each for defamation and its psychological consequences for women, as well as $75 million in damages. In an initial reaction, the Republican described the punishment as “absurd”. “I will definitely appeal,” announced the lawyer.
The responsible US federal judge had already found Giuliani guilty in August of defaming 64-year-old Ruby Freeman and her 39-year-old daughter Wandrea Moss. The two women received national attention last year when they testified before the congressional committee investigating the attack on the Capitol. “I don’t want to go anywhere anymore. I question everything,” Moss said at the time. People threatened her and wished her death. The two black women accused Giuliani, saying his allegations destroyed their reputations and led to numerous threats, including racist ones, against them.
Following Trump's electoral defeat against Democrat Joe Biden in November 2020, Giuliani was a central figure in the incumbent's attempts to overturn the election result with the help of unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and thus remain in office. As part of this campaign, he also published the video with the false accusations against the two women shortly after the election.
Giuliani now has several legal problems. He was charged along with Trump in a criminal case in Atlanta over allegations of election manipulation.
The 79-year-old was once highly respected as mayor of New York; After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he was celebrated as “America’s Mayor.” Giuliani, who was born in New York's Brookyln district in 1944 to Italian immigrants, later became Trump's loyal sidekick.