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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:48:39 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Giuliani defamation trial continues with witness testimony todayThe federal trial of Rudy Giuliani, the former lawyer of ex-president Donald Trump and former New York mayor, is set to continue today in Washington DC. Giuliani is at the center of a defamation case involving Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, both of whom served as election workers in Georgia’s Fulton county after the 2020 presidential election. Both women are seeking up to $43m in compensatory and punitive damages after Giuliani made false statements about them following the election, including accusing them of fraudulently counting mail-in ballots. On Monday, Giuliani’s lawyer told the court that awarding millions of dollars in damages would be like the “death penalty” for his client, adding that “it will be the end of Mr. Giuliani.” Meanwhile, during a tearful testimony on Tuesday, Moss said that Giuliani’s lies about her turned her life “upside down” and detailed her anxiety and depression that followed from Giuliani’s lies.
In an emotional testimony yesterday, former election worker Shaye Moss explained the ways that Rudy Giuliani’s lies have affected her life, saying, “Most days I pray that God does not wake me up and I just disappear.” Here is more on Moss’s testimony from the Guardian’s Sam Levine, who will be reporting again from the courthouse today: For more than two hours on Tuesday, Moss – a former Atlanta election worker – gave haunting testimony explaining how her world was upended after the fateful day when she became aware Rudy Giuliani was falsely accusing her of fraudulently counting mail-in ballots.
“Most days I pray that God does not wake me up and I just disappear,” she said.
Dressed in a black blazer with sparkling, long acrylic nails, Moss’s hand shook as she was sworn in as a witness. She described how she fears her son will come home from school and find her and her grandmother hanging from a tree in their yard. How she pushed everyone close to her away because she didn’t want them to suffer any reputational harm. How she gets anxiety attacks. How she sometimes will have to pull over because she thinks someone is following her.
She also recounted how she became a “pariah” in the elections office and left the job she loved, having worked her way out of the mailroom. How she felt like “the worst mom in the world” when her son failed all of his classes in ninth grade after he started getting harassing messages.
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:50:19 GMT -5
(The Guardian) During his America’s Mayor Live show on Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani commented on his ongoing defamation trial and continued his attacks against Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, saying: “They’re seeking $40m. Oh yeah. They’re seeking $40m for the damage that I allegedly did to them. One of them did testify that she has no money, they do have an endless number of lawyers in the courtroom however for people that don’t have any money… One of the clients said that she’s having a hard time making ends meet. That’s a lot of lawyers to be paying.”During Tuesday’s testimony, Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Sibley, asked Moss why it would cost her millions to repair her reputation which has been damaged as a result of Giuliani’s lies. Moss, who has since suffered from anxiety and depression, as well as difficulty seeking employment, replied: “I personally cannot repair my reputation at the moment because your client is still lying on me and ruining my reputation further… We need to make a statement. We need to ensure that the election workers that are still there don’t have to go through this. Hopefully by hitting someone in their pockets, for someone whose whole career has been about their pockets, we will send a message.”
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:51:35 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Expert witness to testify first on how she calculated damage for election workersLawyers for Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman are just starting on their first witness of the day, Ashlee Humphreys, a professor at Northwestern University. Humphreys is an expert witness who studies social media and is expected to testify about how she calculated the damages Moss and Freeman are entitled to. Just as they have been all week, Moss, Freeman, and Giuliani are in the courtroom. Moss and Freeman are sitting next to each other at a table with their lawyers. Freeman’s back is to Giuliani, who is sitting at a table parallel to them with his lawyer. Ruby Freeman is expected to testify later today. Judge: Giuliani's remarks on plaintiffs' counsel violate a court stipulationFederal judge Beryl Howell called out Rudy Giuliani for disparaging the plaintiffs’ counsel last night following yesterday’s court hearing, saying that it violated a court stipulation, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports. “I thought I could make comments about counsel,” said Giuliani, adding, “I will not do it in the future.” In response, Howell said, “There’s a lot of accidents going on here Mr. Giuliani.”
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:52:10 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:52:57 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:53:30 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:54:36 GMT -5
(The Guardian) “The defamatory claims had a significant, negative and long-lasting impact on the reputations of Ms Freeman and Ms Moss,” said Ashlee Humphreys, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports.
At a minimum, it could cost Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss anywhere between $17.8m and $47.4m, an expert just testified in their defamation case against Rudy Giuliani. Ashlee Humphreys, a marketing professor at Northwestern University, is testifying as an expert witness to try and put a dollar amount to quantify the harm Freeman and Moss suffered as a result of Giuliani’s lies. She was hired by lawyers for Freeman and Moss to perform her analysis. “The defamatory claims had a significant, negative and long-lasting impact on the reputations of Ms Freeman and Ms Moss,” she said. She began by studying the number of impressions – essentially views – Giuliani’s defamatory statements about the two women had after 3 December 2020. She found there were hundreds of thousands of impressions, typical of information that goes viral. A reputational repair campaign would have to essentially make as many correctives as the number of impressions Giuliani had across multiple media platforms, including television and social media. Freeman and Moss have asked for between $13.5m and $43m in damages. In addition to compensatory damages, they are also seeking punitive damages against Giuliani.
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:55:41 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 12:54pm Summary--“The defamatory claims had a significant, negative and long-lasting impact on the reputations of Ms Freeman and Ms Moss,” said Ashlee Humphreys, a professor from Northwestern University and an expert witness of plaintiffs Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. “Ms Freeman and Ms Moss are widely associated with claims of election fraud,” Humphreys added. --Ashlee Humphreys said in court that prior to 3 December 2020, there was almost no search traffic for “Ruby Freeman”. Afterwards, there was an increase, she said. --Ashlee Humphreys also analyzed a Donald Trump campaign advertisement about suitcases in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports. According to Humphreys, the advertisement got between 8m and 18.2m impressions from the Trump campaign and Trump Twitter accounts. --Ashlee Humphreys also explained the omnipresent nature of podcasts and how they appear on various platforms, according to Law & Crime reporter Brandi Buchman. Humphreys added that Rudy Giuliani’s podcast in which he accused Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman of cheating was widely shared on multiple platforms including his website and One America Network, a far-right cable news channel. --Federal judge Beryl Howell called out Rudy Giuliani for disparaging the plaintiffs’ counsel last night following yesterday’s court hearing, saying that it violated a court stipulation. “I thought I could make comments about counsel,” said Giuliani, adding: “I will not do it in the future.” In response, Howell said, “There’s a lot of accidents going on here, Mr Giuliani.”
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:56:36 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:57:32 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:58:32 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Giuliani's attorney tries to undercut idea it will take tens of millions to repair election workers' reputationJoseph Sibley, Rudy Giuliani’s attorney, has been trying to undercut the idea that tens of millions of dollars are needed to repair the reputations of Freeman and Moss’ reputation. He has assailed the idea of using a reputational repair campaign as a way of quantifying the harm of a defamed statement. He has suggested that until Humphreys utilized it in the E Jean Carroll defamation case, it has not been used. And under his questioning, Humphreys has been unable to give an example of a private person who has not been able to undertake a reputation repair campaign (she detailed how the brand Dior successfully ran one after John Galliano, its creative director, made antisemitic remarks). Sibley has also noted that Georgia officials and media outlets have widely reported that the statements about Freeman and Moss are not true. He has pressed Humphreys to acknowledge that she did not fully analyze what effect that could have on the need for a reputation repair campaign. Essentially, he is trying to seed the idea that she only studied Giuliani’s defamatory statements in a vacuum without broader context of efforts to combat lies about Freeman and Moss. He has also suggested that no campaign can successfully convince Americans the election wasn’t stolen.
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 15:59:06 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 16:00:00 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 13, 2023 16:00:48 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 14, 2023 19:34:11 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Rudy Giuliani set to testify in defamation trialRudy Giuliani is set to testify on Thursday in the closely watched federal defamation trial involving two former Atlanta election workers he spread defamatory and false statements about following the 2020 presidential election. The testimony from Donald Trump’s former lawyer will follow the harrowing testimonies delivered earlier this week by Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, both of whom described the long-lasting impacts Giuliani’s lies have had on their lives. On Tuesday, Moss told the court that after Giuliani falsely accused her of fraudulently counting mail-in ballots, she prays on most days that “God does not wake me up and I just disappear.” She added that she often fears that her son will come home from school and discover her and his grandmother hanging from a tree in their yard. Freeman’s testimony followed on Wednesday, during which she sobbed on the stand and described in graphic detail the threatening phone calls and letters she has received following Giuliani’s lies about her. “I don’t have a name no more,” said Freeman, adding, “The only thing you have in your life is your name…my life is messed up.” Moss and Freeman are seeking $15.5m to $43m in damages. In addition to compensatory damages, they are also seeking punitive damages against Giuliani. Meanwhile, following Wednesday’s court hearing, Giuliani, who has remained defiant about his actions, tweeted, “Thank you to everyone who has reached out with support and encouragement… We will continue to tell the truth.”
With Rudy Giuliani set to testify in federal court on Thursday, here is the Guardian’s Sam Levine – who has been reporting from the courthouse – on the significance of this closely watched defamation case: Rudy Giuliani is set to testify on Thursday in a federal defamation case to determine how much he should have to pay two Atlanta election workers he spread false statements about after the 2020 election.
Giuliani’s testimony will cap a closely-watched week-long defamation case. It comes after the two Black workers, Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, gave harrowing testimony about how Giuliani’s lies upended their lives. Among other things, Moss said she is afraid to go anywhere alone and Freeman said she is afraid to give anyone her name and still wears a mask and sunglasses in public so she won’t be recognized. They are seeking $15.5m to $43m in damages from Giuliani.
It’s not clear how the former New York City mayor will defend himself. He has already conceded that he made false statements the two workers and Beryl Howell, the US district judge, has already found him liable for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy. The only question for the eight-member jury is how much to award in damages.
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