Rudy Giuliani Heads to Trial over Defamatory 2020 Election Claims

A civil trial will determine how much the former New York mayor must pay in damages for defaming two Georgia election workers

Rudy Giuliani headed to trial on Monday in the defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers following Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election.

The two poll workers — Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss — sued Giuliani after he publicized a video that claimed to show them rigging the election in Joe Biden's favor.

In August, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found Giuliani liable for several of the women's claims of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy. The jury trial that begins Monday will determine the damages to be awarded to the women, who are seeking between $15.5 million and $43 million.

Related: Ga. Poll Workers Testify at Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Hearing About Living in Fear Since 2020 Election

Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, was one of Trump's most visible lawyers and spent months hosting press conferences and appearing on television and in courtrooms to contest the results of the 2020 election.

As part of the push to convince the American people the vote had been rigged, Giuliani promoted a video — which was also cited by Trump himself — that purported to show Freeman and Moss bringing suitcases of false ballots for Biden into the State Farm Arena, then running them through the machines multiple times.

But the reality was far less nefarious, with state investigators who reviewed the surveillance tapes saying the "suitcases" were just the standard ballot containers issued by the county, and that the election officials were undertaking "normal ballot processing."

Related: Rudy Giuliani Now Admits He Made False Statements About Georgia Poll Workers After 2020 Election

Moss, who served as an election worker for more than 10 years, would detail the threats she received in the wake of the video during testimony before the Jan. 6 House Select committee in 2022.

"A lot of threats, wishing death upon me, telling me that I'll be in jail with my mother and saying things like, 'Be glad it's 2020 and not 1920.' A lot of them were racist, a lot of them were hateful," she said.

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Freeman, who is Moss' mother, went on to say that the threats she and her daughter received because of Giuliani's claims had caused her to live in fear since the election, saying: "I've lost my name, I've lost my reputation, I've lost my sense of security, all because a group of people, starting with 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani, deciding to scapegoat me and my daughter, to push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen."

Related: 18 Trump Allies Indicted in Georgia Election Interference Probe, Including Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows

In a document filed in July in Washington, D.C., the former New York City mayor said he no longer contested the accusations from Freeman and Moss.

From that filing: “Defendant Giuliani concedes solely for the purposes of this litigation … that [he] made the statements of and concerning plaintiffs. He does not dispute for the purposes of this litigation, that the statements carry meaning that is defamatory per se.”

In August, the federal judge in the case awarded a default judgment to Freeman and Moss.

Related: Rudy Giuliani’s 60-Point Dive in Popularity Poll Stuns Data Reporter: ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’

Giuliani faces separate criminal charges in Fulton County, brought by District Attorney Fani Willis after a grand jury investigated efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election results.

In that case, Giuliani was charged with 13 counts, including racketeering and false statements and writings.

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