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Post by Webster on Dec 11, 2023 15:03:45 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Rudy Giuliani in DC federal court for defamation damages trialRudy Giuliani will be defending himself in federal court on Monday against a defamation lawsuit filed against him for false comments he made about two Georgia election workers after the 2020 election. The week-long trial starting Monday in Washington DC will be to determine how much Giuliani will pay in damages for inflammatory remarks he made against Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, two Black election workers in Fulton county. Giuliani is expected to testify in his defense. While serving as head of Trump’s legal team, Giuliani falsely claimed that Freeman and Moss counted 2020 election ballots after tallying had wrapped, sharing misleading security video that was later debunked by Georgia election officials. Freeman and Moss say they faced death threats following Giuliani’s comments, and strangers came to Freeman’s house to enact a “citizen’s arrest”. Giuliani has already been found liable of defamation in August. The latest trial is to determine how much Giuliani will pay in damages, with Freeman and Moss seeking between $15m and $43.5m in damages. Jury selection and opening statements for the damages trial are expected today.
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Post by Webster on Dec 11, 2023 15:09:30 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Giuliani has just arrived to his trial in federal court today, which will determine how much the ex-Trump lawyer will pay in damages after being found liable of defamation in August. Giuliani is expected to testify at some point during the week-long trial, though it isn’t clear if Giuliani will invoke his fifth amendment rights while testifying, CNN reports. Meanwhile, the legal team of Freeman and Moss will play videos of other Trump figures pleading the fifth while refusing to answer questions on the stand. Giuliani is reportedly having trouble paying off mounting legal debts. He is currently selling his $6.5m New York apartment to help square away litigation costs. As of October, Giuliani owed more than $500,000 in unpaid taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Forbes reported.
Rudy Giuliani has taken his seat in a federal courtroom in Washington where jury selection is about to begin in a weeklong trial to determine how much in damages he should have to pay two Atlanta election workers he defamed last year. The former New York City mayor could pay anywhere between $15m and $43m in damages to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother and daughter he spread false lies about them after the election. Included in the questions potential jurors will be asked is “Do you believe that Joseph R Biden’s election as president of the United States in 2020 was illegitimate?” and “Have you ever used the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” or the term or hashtag “WWG1WGA”? Opening statements in the trial are expected this afternoon. The trial is expected to wrap up by Friday.
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Post by Webster on Dec 11, 2023 15:11:35 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 11, 2023 15:12:15 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Potential jurors in Rudy Giuliani’s defamation filled out a questionnaire about possible biases that would hinder their ability to serve and now the US district judge, Beryl Howell, is peppering them with follow up questions. We’ve made it through eight jurors so far and there have been some moments of levity. One woman said she was a general ledger accountant for a non-profit. When Howell pressed her on whether the non-profit had a political affiliation, the woman said, “It’s the Girl Scouts, we sell cookies.” Another potential juror said she worked for the US forest service director of wilderness and wild and scenic rivers. Howell asked, “There are some rivers that aren’t’ scenic?” Another potential juror said he is a cost analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Another said he had been charged with conspiracy drug charges in January 2021, but the charges had been dismissed. He said he did not think he had been treated fairly in the case. Giuliani has sat through most of the proceedings expressionless with his arms crossed at the defense table. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Atlanta election workers he defamed, are also in the courtroom.
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Post by Webster on Dec 11, 2023 15:16:03 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 11, 2023 15:22:14 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Rudy Giuliani case is 'about names that have been disgraced', says lawyer for claimantsOpening statements in Rudy Giuliani’s damages trial have started. The weeklong trial will decide the amount of damages he will pay after being found liable for defamation. From the Guardian’s Sam Levine: “What’s in a name? Power purpose pride,” Von DuBose, a lawyer representing Freeman and Moss opened his statements. “It’s about names that have been disgraced…two names in particular. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. It’s about what their names mean today versus before Mr. Giuliani engaged in the conduct at issue in this case.”
In opening statements, lawyers for Freeman and Moss played vile voicemails the women received following Giuliani’s defamatory statements. The voicemails included racial slurs and threats to burn down Freeman’s business. From the Guardian’s Sam Levine:
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Post by Webster on Dec 11, 2023 15:22:48 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 12, 2023 14:43:56 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Our Sam Levine is in federal court covering Giuliani’s trial in Washington The second day of a federal defamation trial in Washington is not off to a good start for Rudy Giuliani. The US district judge Beryl Howell needled him and his attorney after Giuliani told reporters outside the courthouse on Monday evening that he intended to prove statements he made about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Atlanta election workers, were true.
Howell has already found Giuliani liable for defamation. The only issue in the trial is how much he should pay in damages. She asked whether he was just “playing for the cameras”. “I’m not sure. He’s 80 years old. It’s taken a toll on him. He’s 80 years old,” Joseph Sibley, his attorney, said. Sibley told Howell he could not control what Giuliani does outside of court.
Lawyers for Freeman and Moss are now playing a video deposition from Frank Paul Braun III, an investigator for the secretary of state’s office, who investigated Giuliani’s allegations and proved they were untrue.
Shaye Moss, one of the two election workers Rudy Giuliani defamed after the 2020, is set to testify shortly in the defamation trial against Rudy Giuliani about the horrific consequences she suffered after the former mayor told lies about her. Her testimony is at the heart of the case for why plaintiffs believe Giuliani should pay up to $43m in damages. She will likely testify about the humiliation she faced as she sought a new job after the 2020 election and the anxiety and harassment she and her son suffered.
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Post by Webster on Dec 12, 2023 15:35:54 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 12, 2023 15:36:44 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 12, 2023 15:38:30 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Here’s some background on Shaye Moss, who testified before the January 6 committee last year, offering wrenching details about how Giuliani’s lies upended their lives. -- In powerful and emotional testimony about the sinister results of Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, a mother and daughter who were Georgia elections workers described how Trump and his allies upended their lives, fueling harassment and racist threats by claiming they were involved in voter fraud.
Testifying to the January 6 committee in Washington, Shaye Moss said she received “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.’” That was a reference to lynching, the violent extra-judicial fate of thousands of Black men in the American south.
Moss also said her grandmother’s home had been threatened by Trump supporters seeking to make “citizen’s arrests” of the two poll workers.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine has just left the courtroom where Shaye Moss, a former Atlanta election worker, laid out strikingly emotional testimony about how Rudy Giuliani’s lies upended her life after the 2020 election. He sends this dispatch. Moss, dressed in a black blazer, green blouse and long sparkling white acrylic nails, came to tears on several occasions as she testified and at times her voice was barely audible. Her hand shook as she was sworn on the witness stand. She recalled 4 December 2020, the day that she first became aware of the lies Giuliani was spreading about her. When her boss in Fulton county’s election office first asked to speak with her, she thought she was being promoted. But when she went into his office, she realized she was the only one smiling. It was then that she saw the lies Giuliani was spreading about her for the first time. 4 December was the “last day I was this bubbly, outgoing, happy Shaye. The day everything in life changed. The day I changed. The day everything I turned upside down,” she said. She recalled how she started receiving racist text messages and threats. “I was afraid for my life. I literally felt like someone was going to come and attempt to hang me and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.” And she detailed the shame she felt as she got moved off handling absentee ballots. “I felt like a pariah in the office,” she said.
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Post by Webster on Dec 12, 2023 15:40:02 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The Giuliani defamation trial is one of the first tests of the many prongs pro-democracy groups are using in the courts to try to hold purveyors of election lies accountable. Several lawsuits use anti-defamation laws in civil lawsuits against big names who joined with Trump to deny the results of the 2020 election, including Giuliani, Mike Lindell and Dinesh D’Souza. Separately, other groups are working to keep Trump off the ballot for violating the 14th amendment by engaging in insurrection. Attempts in several states have so far failed to remove the former president from the running, though the lawsuits are still ongoing. The 14th amendment is one of several Reconstruction-era laws to come back into the courtroom in recent years to confront Trump and his allies. In another avenue for accountability, the parties defending against frivolous election lawsuits are increasingly seeking monetary sanctions from plaintiffs who make broad claims without the facts to back them up. The courts are now granting these sanctions at times as a clear message that lawsuits need a factual basis. At the state level, multiple states have charged or are investigating the fake electors scheme, resulting in criminal charges now in Georgia, Nevada and Michigan. Fake electors in Wisconsin settled a civil lawsuit recently. And most prominent of the legal routes to hold election deniers accountable: the criminal charges Trump faces for his role in election subversion.
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Post by Webster on Dec 12, 2023 15:41:28 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Though Giuliani has already been found liable for defaming Moss and Freeman, his comments last night to the media where he claimed his lies about them were true will likely factor into the trial. Already, the US district judge Beryl Howell asked about Giuliani’s mental fitness, given his comments: “everything I said about them is true.” And on the stand this afternoon, Moss brought up his remarks, saying he was still “spreading lies about us last night”. Politico’s Kyle Cheney wrote on X that the judge is permitting Moss to talk about these comments, despite an objection from Giuliani’s lawyer.
Shaye Moss just ended approximately two hours of haunting testimony detailing how her life has been ruined ever since Rudy Giuliani spread lies about her after the 2020 election. Her worst fear, she said, is that her teenage son will come home to find her and her mother hanging from a tree in front of their home. She still pulls over in her neighborhood because she feels like someone is following them. She doesn’t go out alone. She has panic attacks. She left the job that she worked hard to get because she had become a “pariah” in the office. When her son started getting harassing messages and failed all of his classes in the 9th grade, she felt responsible and like “the worst mom in the world”. “I feel like I’m in a dark place and the only thing that surrounds me are the conspiracy and the lies,” she said. She ended her direct testimony by talking about how she’s trapped in a cycle of eating, sleeping, and crying. “Sadly that’s my life.” Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer will cross-examine her when court resumes this afternoon at 2pm.
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Post by Webster on Dec 12, 2023 15:42:45 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 12, 2023 15:43:47 GMT -5
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