Rudy Giuliani loses bid to dismiss $148 million defamation judgment in Georgia election workers case
Rudy Giuliani has lost his bid to dismiss the $148 million defamation judgment against him from late last year. The judgment was won by former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss.
"Giuliani's renewed motion urging this Court to reverse its prior findings and rulings and to override the jury's considered verdict on the basis of five threadbare arguments falls 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,'" U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell said in her ruling Monday.
The mother and daughter were accused by Giuliani of committing election fraud while the two were counting ballots in Georgia's Fulton County on Election Day in 2020.
"I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I will be able to share my name with," Freeman told reporters after the defamation ruling in December.
She reiterated her need to remain anonymous due to the fear of threats. "I miss my name," she said.
"A jury stood witness to what Rudy Giuliani did to me and my daughter ... for that I am thankful," added Freeman. But, she said, "I want people to understand this: Money will never solve all of my problems."
Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a New York court a week after losing the ruling.
Giuliani listed his net worth between $1 million and $10 million, but claimed he owes more than $151 million to various creditors, according to his bankruptcy petition.
"The filing should be a surprise to no one," Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Giuliani, said in a statement.
A bankruptcy judge ruled in February that Giuliani could appeal the judgment, which was later reduced to just shy of $146 million.
Frank Braun and Frances Watson, both investigators with the Georgia Secretary of State at the time, said during the trial that Freeman and Moss returned to State Farm Arena late on Nov. 3, 2020, after the secretary extended hours for counting ballots, to help expedite the process -- not, as Giuliani and others suggested, to rig votes.
"There was no evidence that suggested they did anything wrong, except show up to work and work hard," Braun said in his video deposition.
ABC News' Luc Bruggeman, Aaron Katersky and Laura Romero contributed to this report.
