$148 million damages verdict adds to Rudy Giuliani’s financial woes
Former Mayor of New York awaits criminal trial
A criminal trial awaits Rudy Giuliani in Georgia. He is an alleged unnamed co-conspirator in a federal indictment against Donald Trump. And now he’s been ordered to pay a sum he surely cannot afford.
The $148 million verdict in a defamation case brought by two former Georgia election workers marks a new low point for the man once lauded as “America’s mayor,” whose advocacy of Donald Trump’s false election claims has led to criminal charges and hefty legal bills.
And the jury’s verdict could be a troubling sign for Giuliani as he gears up to defend himself against charges in Georgia that could land him behind bars.
“It’s like everything is crashing down on him,” said Nick Akerman, a New York attorney who briefly worked alongside Giuliani in the federal prosecutors’ office there. “He hasn’t come to grips with what he has done to his life. He has completely destroyed himself.”
A defiant Giuliani vowed
Friday to appeal, calling the damages award for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, “absurd.” Outside Washington’s federal courthouse after the verdict, he repeated his claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. And in a video later on X, formerly known as Twitter, he insisted he did nothing wrong, and suggested he will keep pressing his claims even if it means losing all his money or ending up in jail.
“If they want to put me in jail for it, if you want to shoot me for it ... you’re not
going to get me to lie,” Giuliani said.
It’s the latest chapter in a remarkable story that has taken Giuliani from the cover of Time Magazine as “Person of the Year” in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to being mocked on late night TV and facing legal and financial peril. Some who knew Giuliani when he was a young prosecutor who went on to lead the prominent U.S. attorney’s office in New York’s Southern District say they hardly recognize the man they see on TV today.
“It’s a shame because he had such promise,” said John Flannery, another lawyer who worked alongside Giuliani as a federal prosecutor. “He was a very smart lawyer. He was very helpful to everybody in the office.”