Days after being awarded $148 million in damages against Rudy Giuliani in a defamation suit, two former Georgia election workers have filed a new lawsuit against the former Trump lawyer over remarks he made about them immediately after Friday’s verdict.
The new suit by Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss seeks a court order permanently barring Giuliani “from persisting in his defamatory campaign” against the mother and daughter, arguing that he’s continued to falsely accuse them of committing election fraud even after a federal jury handed down last week’s verdict in Washington, D.C.
The lawsuit notes that Giuliani told reporters after the trial that his long-debunked allegations “were supportable and are supportable today.” He also told Newsmax that “he was in possession of video evidence demonstrating the truth of his allegations.”
In Monday’s filing, attorneys for Freeman and Moss said they’d asked for Giuliani to stop smearing their clients, and said he would not.
“Before filing this lawsuit, Plaintiffs’ counsel asked Defendant Giuliani to enter into an agreement to stop publishing these and any similar false claims about Plaintiffs. Defendant Giuliani refused,” the filing said. “Defendant Giuliani’s statements, coupled with his refusal to agree to refrain from continuing to make such statements, make clear that he intends to persist in his campaign of targeted defamation and harassment. It must stop.”
The suit doesn’t specifically ask for money damages — just “a targeted injunction barring Defendant Giuliani from continuing to repeat the very falsehoods about Plaintiffs that have already been found and held, conclusively, to be defamatory.”
A spokesperson for Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suit accuses Giuliani of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress — two of the same claims the plaintiffs successfully sued him for in the same federal courthouse.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in August found Giuliani liable for defamation after he snubbed multiple court orders to turn over required evidence to Freeman and Moss.
Giuliani had repeatedly accused the pair of election fraud in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss in Georgia, and circulated a brief, heavily edited clip of security footage that he told a legislative committee in Georgia showed them passing USB drives “like vials of heroin or cocaine” during ballot-counting operations. Moss said the “USB drive” was actually a ginger mint.
Freeman and Moss said they were subjected to a torrent of harassment and threats from Giuliani’s smears and were forced to leave their jobs.
Giuliani, meanwhile, got some supportive words Monday from Trump. Asked by reporters at his golf club in West Palm Beach whether he’d spoken to Giuliani, Trump said: “I think it’s so sad what’s happened to Rudy. He’s a great patriot. He’s the greatest mayor in the history of New York. I think it’s a very, very unfair situation.”
Trump and Giuliani are among numerous defendants facing racketeering and conspiracy charges in Georgia related to the 2020 election. The charges include harassment of Freeman. Both Giuliani and Trump have pleaded not guilty in the case.
Jonathan Allen, Dasha Burns and Vaughn Hillyard contributed.
