Near the end of the trial in a defamation case brought by two former election workers in Georgia, Rudy Giuliani decided — for perhaps the first time in his life — that it would be better to keep his mouth shut. Though he was expected to testify in his own defense, the former New York mayor thought better of it — or more likely, his lawyers convinced him that a cross-examination would be a disastrous coda to a case that may bankrupt him. Giuliani’s silence didn’t avoid disaster, however: On Friday, a jury ordered him to pay nearly $150 million in damages for defaming former election workers Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and Ruby Freeman after the 2020 election.
Earlier this week, Giuliani’s lawyer told the jury that if his client had to pay the $43 million Moss and Freeman sought, it “will be the end of Mr. Giuliani.” But bankruptcy would be a healthy dose of accountability for a powerful man who decided to lie and slander two ordinary people who were doing nothing more than the job they had been hired for, in service to the operation of our democracy. This is a very bad moment for Giuliani, but a good moment for America. The case also shows that our legal system — in particular, how it deals with instances when one person makes knowingly false accusations against another with grave consequences — sometimes works exactly as it’s supposed to and produces something like justice.
Given the man on whose behalf Giuliani was acting, it’s particularly appropriate that he be punished.
Giuliani had already lost the case brought by Moss and Freeman. The two were election workers in Atlanta when they found themselves at the center of conspiracy theories and deranged accusations about election fraud coming from Donald Trump and his allies, particularly Giuliani.
In August, a judge found Giuliani “civilly liable on plaintiffs’ defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, and punitive damage claims.” He admitted that he made false claims about Moss and Freeman, some of which were particularly lurid. At one point, having seen video in which one of the women passed the other a ginger mint while working on the sorting and tabulation of ballots, Giuliani claimed they were “passing around USB ports like they were vials of heroin or cocaine” as part of the fictional vote-stealing scheme.
This part of the trial is meant only to determine how much money Giuliani will have to pay the women. As Moss and Freeman explained in devastating testimony, Trump’s and Giuliani’s falsehoods turned both women’s lives upside down. They were deluged with death threats and racist harassment, to the point where they legitimately feared for their safety and that of their family. Even Moss’ son was overcome by the stress, she testified. This is precisely the kind of case defamation law is set up for: One person knowingly spreading falsehoods about another, with serious professional and personal consequences.
Given the man on whose behalf Giuliani was acting, it’s particularly appropriate that he be punished. One of the cornerstones of defamation law is that public figures have to meet a higher standard in order to sue successfully, since they have more resources at their disposal to counter what people say about them, even if it turns out to be false. Yet the most public figure of all — Donald Trump — was terribly frustrated by the fact that he got so much criticism in the media. So he promised to change the law to allow him to go after his enemies.
“I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money,” he said in 2016. “So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected.”
There was nothing petty about what happened to Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman.
As candidate and as president, Trump sued media organizations many times, but inevitably lost. I was involved in one of those cases: The Trump campaign sued my then-employer, The Washington Post, over a critical column I wrote about him (the suit was rightly dismissed by a judge).
That and the other Trump suits illustrated the upside-down world of libel law he promised to create, where the most powerful person in the world goes after those who criticize him. Fortunately, he never “opened up our libel laws,” because that would have required congressional action, and few members of Congress wanted to indulge this particularly petty grievance.
But there was nothing petty about what happened to Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman. They were swept up in Trump’s attempt to stay in power even though he lost the election. That attempt was abetted by cronies like Giuliani, who were so hungry for power they didn’t care how many ordinary people they stomped on along the way. If Giuliani spends the remainder of his days eating convenience store ramen and fretting about whether he’ll be able to afford a place to live next month, it will be precisely what he deserves.