It only took a few moments for Rudy Giuliani‘s attorney to make a scathing attack in his opening statements against Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, likening their lawsuit against Giuliani to the “death penalty.”
The trial, which kicked off Monday in Washington, will determine the damages Giuliani will have to pay the former Georgia election workers after he conceded to making “defamatory statements” against both women, falsely alleging they committed fraud and tampered with votes during the 2020 presidential election.
Both women sued him in 2021 for up to $43 million because Giuliani’s inflammatory remarks incited an onslaught of heinous death threats and racial harassment against them.
It reportedly took around two hours for an eight-person jury to be seated, but once the jury selection process wrapped up, opening statements began.
“There’s no question these claimants were harmed. They didn’t deserve what happened to them,” Giuliani’s attorney, Joseph A. Sibley IV, said in his opening statement. “But what happened to them happened because of a controversy involving a lot of people, not just Rudy Giuliani. You’ll see a lot of evidence of harm. But not a lot of evidence Mr. Giuliani was the cause.”
CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane live-tweeted those statements in which he recounted how Sibley also said that Freeman and Moss’ attorneys are seeking the “civil equivalent of the death penalty” in damages but requested that the jury select a payout that is “fair and proportional” to his client’s actions.
As a basis for that request, he stated that Giuliani never made any threatening statements against both women outside of the false election fraud claims. Sibley also tried to equate this case to the $15 million defamation case Johnny Depp brought against Amber Heard until the judge told him only to highlight his client’s case.
Freeman’s and Moss’ attorneys maintained that Freeman and Moss suffered emotional, psychological, and lasting harm directly connected to Giuliani’s conduct and the ramifications of the threats and harassment they faced as a result. They made the case that the jury should award the mother and daughter compensatory and punitive damages.
“This case is about how Mr. Giuliani and his co-conspirators took these folks’ good names. Names are important. Names are significant,” plaintiffs’ attorney Von DuBose said. “That’s what this case is about. It’s about two names that have been disgraced. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.”
“Here, a reputation has been shattered, and that harm endures,” attorney Michael J. Gottlieb said. “Consider a verdict that will send a message.”
The trial is expected to last one to two weeks, during which the jury is expected to hear expert testimony from the defense on lost wages, relocation costs, and reputational harm.
Giuliani’s legal troubles don’t stop here, though. The former New York City mayor is also a co-defendant alongside Donald Trump for his alleged role in an election interference case in Georgia in which he was indicted for violating the state’s RICO act. He also faces a lawsuit alleging he’s failed to make on-time payments to attorneys who have represented him in a number of cases in recent years.
