Giuliani Ordered to pay $148 Million for Defamation of Election Workers Transcript

Welcome to the NewsHour. As we come on the air, a verdict tonight in one of the cases related to the 2020 election.

Earlier this evening, a federal jury in Washington ordered Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former campaign attorney, to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers for distress caused by lies he spread following the 2020 election.

(00:22)
NPR’s Miles Parks was in the courtroom today and joins us now. Miles, we should say this was a civil trial and the jury was asked only to decide the amount of damages. Here’s what Rudy Giuliani told reporters on his way out of the courtroom today.

Very little I could say right now, I have to analyze this. Obviously, possibly we’ll move for a new trial, certainly we’ll appeal. The absurdity of the number merely underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding.

He’s calling that number, the $148 million, absurd. How did the jury arrive at that number and what message were they trying to send?

It is a staggering number, isn’t it? I think throughout the entire week, the plaintiffs attorneys were trying to make the case that the jury should send a message that election lies, especially when the people pushing them are essentially using real people who are getting caught up as casualties. This is not acceptable. It made it clear that they wanted the jury to repair the women’s reputation, but more than that, they wanted them to send a message that this is not how healthy democracies behave.

We heard from both Shea Moss and Ruby Freeman, who were subject to Rudy Giuliani’s lies about them. Here’s what Ms. Freeman told reporters,

Money will never solve all of my problems. I can never move back into the house that I called home. I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I choose to share my name with.

How did their attorneys make the case to the jury that the extreme emotional distress, their damaged reputations that that was worth X amount?

It really was kind of a two-prong approach where you had the practical aspect, and they made that case. They had an expert witness who was a marketing professor from Northwestern come in and show how these lies reached tens of millions of Americans in a time after voting ended in 2020, and then had her put together a strategic communications plan. Essentially what it would cost to counter those lies and repair the reputation, that estimate was put at roughly $47 million.

(02:40)
On top of that, then they said how do you measure essentially the emotional toll of this? Both women who were affected testified, both women got emotional cried on the stand. The jurors and the public, saw more death threats than I could count. We heard racist voicemails that were left for these women that Shea Moss’ son reportedly heard. All of that was taken into consideration when the jury was coming up with this $148 million number.

We heard Rudy Giuliani say an appeal is on the way. What happens next?

It’s a little bit unclear. He says he’s going to appeal. Throughout this entire process, one of the strange things about this is that while the attorneys for the plaintiffs say they wanted to send a message that this is not acceptable, Rudy Giuliani has continued to say these lies that he’s being sued for here, on Monday after court ended on the courthouse steps, Rudy Giuliani said everything I’ve said about those women is true and said again that they stole the election.

(03:45)
What’s next? I think he is clearly indicating that he’s going to appeal this decision. I think what’s a little more unclear is how this penalty is going to affect whether he and whether the former president, whether other people who have continued to spread these lies over the last few years, whether this affects whether they continue to do that looking ahead at 2024.

NPR’s Miles Parks. Thanks for coming in straight from the courtroom today. We appreciate it.

Thanks, Jeff.