Topline
A federal judge rejected Rudy Giuliani’s request to reverse a massive defamation judgment owed to two Georgia election workers, ordering the former Trump lawyer to pay $148 million to a mother and daughter whom Giuliani falsely accused of voter fraud in 2020.
Key Facts
A ruling from D.C.-based District Judge Beryl Howell upheld a jury’s verdict from December that found Giuliani, an ex-attorney for former President Donald Trump, had to pay two Georgia election workers—Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss—for defamation, emotional stress and punitive damages.
Giuliani’s lawyers had tried to get the court to reverse the ruling, filing a motion in February that asked the court to reverse the court’s finding or grant a new trial on the premise that, among other things, the emotional harm statements were time-barred, there was no competent evidence of distress and that some of the testimony should have been stricken.
But Howell wrote the motion from Giuliani’s team fell “well short of persuading that ‘the evidence and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn therefrom are so one-sided that reasonable men and women could not have reached a verdict in [plaintiffs’] favor.’”
Forbes has reached out to a representative of Giuliani’s for comment.