In a surprising move, a suit against Rudy Giuliani was decided this month, with a jury awarding a settlement of $148 million in restitution to two former Georgia election workers.
Giuliani’s guilt had already been determined. He has repeatedly — well before, during and since being at the center of this defamation suit — defamed the good names of these Georgia poll workers and falsely accused them of election interference. He has admitted to making the damaging statements but has yet to refrain from continuing his lies about election fraud.
The defamed workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, were seeking $24 million apiece in their suit. The eight-person jury went $100 million dollars over the requested $48 million. What words did these women use to describe the painful ordeal caused by the false accusations so loudly trumpeted by Giuliani? As reported by USA Today: “Ruby Freeman, a 2020 Georgia election worker, told a federal jury through sobs Wednesday she was assailed with racist taunts and death threats after she was falsely accused of election fraud by Donald Trump and his campaign lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.”
The attacks didn’t stop with the taunts and death threats.
“Freeman, 64, said she had to leave her home in January 2021, after people came there with bullhorns and the FBI told her she wasn’t safe. Her online boutique was flooded with threatening messages, including several that mentioned lynching, after Giuliani tweeted a video of her counting votes as a temporary election worker, she said. ‘I took it as though they were going to hang me with their ropes on my street,’ said Freeman, who sued Giuliani for defamation. ‘I was scared. I didn’t know if they were coming to kill me.’”
Ms. Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss told the jury of their marked fear for their lives and of the damage Giuliani’s words caused. What was their response to the jury’s decision? Money can’t repair the damage, they said, but as reported by NPR, their “greatest wish is that no one, no election worker or voter or school board member or anyone else, ever experiences anything like what we went through.”
The contrast between the women’s honest and hopeful wishes and Giuliani’s response couldn’t have been more stark. Giuliani has been described by ABC News as defiant, insisting he has done nothing wrong. What did he call the jury’s decision? “Absurd.” This unwillingness to acknowledge wrongdoing and complete lack of contrition are certainly nothing new from Trump and his many henchmen, but it’s just as dumbfounding today as it was when the first lies emerged on the campaign trail nearly a decade ago. Remember when Trump’s lies were new news? Back in 2016, Politifact launched its Trump-O-Meter, itemizing how many campaign promises Trump has broken or kept. Arguably, though, the most concerning bit of coverage was Politico’s fact-checking of Trump’s 2016 campaign statements. Over a span of just five days of fact-checking, Politico determined in 2016 that Trump lied every 3.25 minutes, on average. Gracious! Fast-forward seven years, and the same lies are continuing.
We’ve always heard that the wheels of justice turn slowly, but turn they do. Giuliani may be one of the first people who made baseless claims of 2020 election fraud to be found guilty of lies and causing damage to innocent people, but let us hope he is not the last.
Bill Freeman
Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post, and The News.
