A jury has already ensured that former New York City mayor and Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani will pay sizably for spreading false election fraud claims about former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Now, the pair wants to make sure he keeps their names out of his mouth for good.
Rudy Giuliani must shell out $148 million to Moss and Freeman, which a jury determined would atone for the distress they suffered after Giuliani falsely accused the mother-daughter pair of committing ballot tampering during the 2020 presidential election in a flagrant defamation campaign.
That multi-million dollar award was decided in a Washington, D.C., court on Friday. By Monday, news was already circulating about a second lawsuit Freeman and Moss filed against Giuliani, this time to request a federal judge to forbid him from ever speaking publicly about them again. As it happens, Giuliani has continued to defend his claims even after being found liable for defamation.
“Defendant Giuliani continues to spread the very same lies for which he has already been held liable,” the new injunction says. “Defendant Giuliani’s statements, coupled with his refusal to agree to refrain from continuing to make such statements, make clear that he intends to persist in his campaign of targeted defamation and harassment. It must stop.”
Although Giuliani never testified during this month’s trial to determine damages after the August default judgment against him, the suit notes a press conference held while the trial was still happening in which Giuliani stated he would testify and make “definitively clear that what I said was true, and that, whatever happened to them — which is unfortunate about other people overreacting — everything I said about them is true.”
News reporters even asked Giuliani if he regretted his inflammatory statements about Moss and Freeman, to which he replied, “Of course, I don’t regret it … I told the truth.”
Even after the trial came to an end, Giuliani told reporters that he would continue to uphold his voter fraud claims but admitted that the threats and harassment the pair endured because of his allegations were “abominable” and “deplorable.”
In an interview on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast the day after the damages were awarded, he called the court proceedings “a sham” and said that the jury never saw any evidence that “many Americans have seen about how these women have acted.”
The 10-page complaint doesn’t seek any more money from Giuliani other than attorneys’ fees and filing costs.
During the trial, Giuliani’s lawyer likened the case to the “civil equivalent of the death penalty” for his client. The attorney representing Moss and Freeman argued the jury should “send a message” with the award they selected for the emotional distress Giuliani caused his clients.
Giuliani plans to appeal the decision.
This is just the foot of Giuliani’s legal troubles. He already faces mounting financial crises connected to his legal proceedings. He’s also set to stand trial next year in a sweeping election interference case in Georgia, where he’s accused of criminal racketeering and allegedly conspiring with Donald Trump and several others to keep Trump in office.
