Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was ordered, Friday, December 15, to pay more than $148 million (approximately €135 million) to two electoral agents he had defamed during the presidential election in 2020.
The lawyers of Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, two electoral agents from the state of Georgia (southeast), had demanded in the federal court in Washington at least 24 million dollars for each. But the jury awarded them each nearly 17 million dollars in compensation, 20 million for moral damage, and a total amount of 75 million in damages, American media said.
From a video showing the mother and her daughter passing an object - which turned out to be a mint tablet - during the counting of the ballots, the former mayor (1994-2001) and ex-prosecutor of New York had claimed that they exchanged a USB stick “as if they were doses of heroin or cocaine” to rig the results. The complainants, both black, recounted how Mr. Giuliani's accusations, taken up by Donald Trump on his social networks, had earned them a flood of insults and threats, often of a racist nature.
“Devastating” years
Reading a statement outside court, Ms. Moss described the “devastating” years she and her mother experienced because of Mr. Giuliani’s statements. “The flame that Giuliani lit with these lies, which he passed on to many others to fan that flame, has changed every aspect of our lives, our homes, our families, our work, our sense of security and our health mental,” she listed.
“Money will never solve all my problems,” his mother said. I can never return to the house I consider home. I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I give my name to. »
After recognizing in July the falsity of his accusations against the two electoral agents, Mr. Giuliani, spearhead of the former Republican president's campaign for the invalidation of the results of the 2020 election, said on Friday "no 'having no doubt that his statements were tenable at the time and still are today', but having been prevented from providing proof.
“The absurdity of this amount only highlights the absurdity of the entire procedure. So I am confident that when this case comes before a fair court, it will be overturned very quickly,” he assured, signifying his intention to appeal. Asked about his possible regrets for the attacks suffered by the two women, he admitted that “these comments were abominable”, but assured that he was in no way responsible for them. Her defense sought largely to place blame on a website that posted surveillance video of the two women counting ballots.
“Rudy Giuliani was not the only one to spread lies about us and others must be held accountable, but that will be for later,” said Ruby Freeman, in a probable allusion to Donald Trump.
Virtually ruined
Judge Beryl Howell had already, in August, found Rudy Giuliani guilty of defamation and ordered him to reimburse the legal fees of the two electoral agents. Reputed to be virtually ruined, Rudy Giuliani is also being sued by a law firm which represented him for several years and is claiming $1.3 million in unpaid debts.
Rudy Giuliani was criminally indicted in August by the Georgia courts along with Donald Trump and seventeen other people for illicit manipulation to reverse the results of the 2020 election in this key state. Four of the nineteen defendants initially targeted by the indictment issued on August 14, notably under a law on organized crime, have already pleaded guilty. They were sentenced to reduced sentences, without prison time, in exchange for their testimony at the future trial of the other defendants.
