Investigation Reports: How Two Georgia Election Poll Workers Brought a Defamation Lawsuit Against Former NYC D.A. and Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Won Big!
Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss filed their defamation lawsuit in December 2021, alleging Rudy Giuliani mounted a sustained smear campaign against them by repeatedly accusing them of committing voter fraud to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia.
Freeman and Moss are represented by a non-profit legal firm, Protect Democracy.
Amended Compaint Against Rudy Giuliani
An Amended Complaint naming Giuliani as the sole defendant was filed in federal court on May 10, 2022.
Amended Complaint: Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss v. Rudolph W. Giuliani
Borrowing from the language of the original lawsuit, the complaint alleges as follows:
Defendant Rudy Giuliani bears substantial and outsized responsibility for the campaign of partisan character assassination of Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss. He orchestrated a sustained smear campaign, repeatedly accusing Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss, by name, on television and on the Internet and social media networks of committing election fraud in order to alter the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Specifically, Defendant Giuliani published, caused to be published, and foreseeably led others to publish false accusations that Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss had committed election fraud by, among other things:
- Engaging in a criminal conspiracy, along with others, to illegally exclude observers during the counting of ballots “under false pretenses” so that they could engage in election fraud;
- Criminally and/or fraudulently introducing “suitcases” of illegal ballots into the ballot-counting process;
- Criminally and/or fraudulently counting the same ballots multiple times in order to swing the results of the election;
- Surreptitiously passing around flash drives that were not supposed to be placed in Dominion voting machines; and
- Committing other crimes, including participating in something that amounted to the “crime of the century.”
Defendant Giuliani, a member of Former President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign team and a former sometime lawyer to Trump, is a key figure in orchestrating and disseminating the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump by now-President Joseph R. Biden Jr. through coordinated large-scale election fraud across key swing states, including Georgia.
“It’s turned my life upside down. I no longer give out my business card… I don’t want anyone knowing my name,” Moss told the committee. “I don’t go to the grocery store at all. I haven’t been anywhere at all. I’ve gained about 60 pounds. I just don’t do nothing anymore,” she added, wiping away a tear.
“I second guess everything that I do. It’s affected my life in a major way — in every way. All because of lies.”
Moss had to go into hiding and change her appearance after she started receiving threats. She eventually left her job.
In a phone call leaked to reporters days before the insurrection, Trump was berating Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the state’s election results. During the call, the former president mentioned Moss’ mother, Ruby Freeman, who was temping as an election worker with her daughter, 18 times.
“I’ll take on anybody you want with regard to Ruby Freeman, and her lovely daughter, a very lovely young lady, I’m sure. But Ruby Freeman, I will take on anybody you want,” Trump said to Raffensperger.
In a virtual hearing with GOP lawmakers in Georgia, Giuliani mentioned both Moss and Freeman. “They should have been questioned already. Their places of work, their homes should have been searched,” he said.
Moss also said she hadn’t known about threats being made against her by those who believed Trump and Giuliani’s allegations until one of her supervisors called her into his office and told her to check her Facebook account, which she said she didn’t often use.
“I’m just panicky at this point, because this has never happened to me and my mom is involved,” Moss told the committee. “I went to [Facebook messages] and it was just a lot of horrible things there… a lot of threats, wishing death upon me, telling me that I’ll be in jail with my mother and saying things like ‘Be glad its 2020 and not 1920.'”
“A lot of them were racist,” Moss said of the messages. “A lot them were just hateful.”
Moss said she blamed herself and her career choice for the attacks on her mother, and threats toward her son and her grandmother, as well. Someone showed up at her grandmother’s door and said they were there to make a citizen’s arrest, Moss said.
“I felt horrible for picking this job, for being the one who wants to help,” she said, “I felt it was my fault for putting my family in this situation.”
Freeman said that she had to be moved from her house due to threats brought on by Trump. And she doesn’t use her name in public, after years of being known as “Lady Ruby” in her community and for her small business.
“I don’t introduce myself by name anymore, I get nervous when I bump into someone who in the grocery store who says my name. I’m worried about who’s listening. I get nervous when I have to give my name for food orders,” she said.
“I’ve lost my name. I’ve lost my reputation. I’ve lost my sense of security,” Freeman said.
On December 3, 2020, the Trump campaign published an edited video from a grainy security camera that showed unidentified persons (including individuals later identified as Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss) counting ballots. The Trump campaign and Giuliani used that video to fabricate the lies that Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss were illegally counting ballots. Giuliani amplified the video by posting about it on social media and directing his followers to watch it multiple times over the next two days. OAN, its hosts, and its staff leveraged Giuliani’s unsupported factual assertions and almost immediately published them to millions of its viewers and readers, subsequently adding Ms. Freeman’s and Ms. Moss’s names and leveling additional accusations of criminal fraud against them.
The consequences, the election workers asserted, were allegedly stark: “Ms. Freeman, at the recommendation of the FBI, fled her home and did not return for two months.”
“On at least two occasions, strangers showed up at her grandmother’s home and attempted to push into the house in order to make a ‘citizens’ arrest,’” the lawsuit asserted.
The mother and daughter were thrust into the spotlight after they were shown in security camera footage from Atlanta’s State Farm Arena processing ballots. Giuliani and the Trump campaign shared an excerpt from the video and falsely claimed Freeman and Moss were engaging in a fake-ballot scheme. Giuliani also claimed without evidence the two were passing around USB ports “as if they were vials of heroin or cocaine.”
Within 24 hours of Giuliani and the Trump campaign’s original publication of these lies on December 3, 2020, Georgia election officials publicly and definitively debunked the claims about Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss through a detailed explanation of what the misinterpreted video did not show: no suitcases; no illegal ballot counting; no election fraud. A full hand recount of Georgia’s election results had already confirmed the election results, and by December 7, so would the recount requested by the Trump campaign. Through December and January, Georgia’s Republican election officials continued to explain to the public, again and again, that thorough reviews had disproven Defendants’ false claims and proven that no illegal ballot counting had occurred.
While Georgia election officials refuted the baseless claims spread by Trump’s allies, Freeman and Moss were subjected to violent and racist threats and harassment. An indictment returned by a grand jury in Fulton County this month charging Giuliani, Trump and 17 others for their alleged roles in a scheme to overturn the election results in Georgia detailed how allies of Trump went to Freeman’s house in early January 2021 and allegedly attempted to influence her testimony in an official proceeding about the events at the State Farm Arena on Election Day in 2020.
Giuliani attempted to dismiss the lawsuit from Freeman and Moss, but Howell denied the request in October and accused the former mayor of pushing a false narrative that the election was stolen.
The suit at issue accuses Giuliani of defaming Freeman and Moss by alleging that they conspired to exclude observers from an Atlanta ballot counting site, that they hid stacks of unauthorized ballots on election night and introduced them into ballot-counting machines. The women say the claims are nonsense and have caused them to be subjected to harassment.
An attorney for the poll workers, Meryl Governski, said the plaintiffs got emails from third parties they subpoenaed that were sent to or from Giuliani but that he never produced in the litigation.
One of Giuliani’s false accusations included a claim that Moss handed her mother a thumb drive “like they were vials of heroin or cocaine” as the two worked at the State Farm Arena for the Fulton County Board of Elections in 2020. In reality, Moss has said her mother had just handed her a ginger mint.
In a court filing, Giuliani acknowledged that he had made defamatory statements about the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, though he stopped short of conceding that his statements caused damages to the pair. Giuliani also said in the July filing that he still wanted to argue that his statements about voter fraud in Georgia were protected by free speech.
Giuliani had until Tuesday afternoon to either forfeit the lawsuit, conceding he was liable and opening himself up to pay the ballot-counters’ damages, or give Judge Beryl Howell more explanation and appear before her for a hearing in mid-August.
Following Giuliani’s concessions, Howell ordered him to pay more of Moss and Freeman’s legal fees after previously ordering him to pay them $90,000.
Two Atlanta Poll Workers Settle Defamation Lawsuit Against One America (Reuters, April 21, 2022)
Two Georgia election workers who were the target of vote-rigging conspiracy theories have reached a settlement agreement with the far-right One America News Network in their defamation lawsuit against the outlet. The lawsuit alleges that OAN broadcast stories that falsely accused Moss and Freeman of conspiring to produce secret batches of illegal ballots and running them through voting machines to help Joe Biden, a Democrat, defeat Trump, a Republican.
Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss v. Herring Networks, Inc. d/b/a/ One America News Network
There is no evidence to support the election fraud claims, which have been repeatedly debunked by Georgia election officials.
Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, a voter registration officer in Fulton County, and Ruby Freeman, Moss’s mother and a temp worker for the 2020 election, sued OAN officials along with former U.S. President Donald Trump and Ex-Lawyer Rudy Giuliani for allegedly spreading lies about them in their efforts to overturn Trump’s election loss.
The lawsuit sought the removal of the reports about Freeman and Moss from OAN’s websites and other media channels, as well as compensatory and punitive damages.
Moss and Freeman, in their joint status report, said they had a “successful one-day mediation” on Tuesday with the OAN defendants and had “signed a binding set of settlement terms” with them.
Michael Gottlieb, a lawyer for Moss and Freeman, called it “a fair and reasonable settlement,” in a statement.
The settlement left only Giuliani as a defendant.
Giuliani, who spearheaded Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s election win, appeared at a hearing with Georgia lawmakers in which he showed snippets of surveillance video showing the two women at work in a ballot-processing room at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. He repeatedly identified Moss and Freeman by name, calling them “crooks” who “obviously” stole votes.
A state investigation said the full video showed that the women were properly and legally counting ballots.
A federal judge has ordered Rudy Giuliani to provide a detailed accounting of his finances and net worth in connection with a lawsuit filed by two Georgia poll workers who contend the Trump lawyer defamed them by publicly accusing them of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell issued the order during an unusual hearing Friday on ongoing disputes about access to Giuliani’s evidence related to the suit brought by Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss two years ago.
During the nearly 3-hour hearing, Howell repeatedly expressed irritation at having to expend considerable time on the discovery dispute, which she suggested should have been worked out by the parties.
While the court session explored a variety of issues about evidence in the case, much of the focus was on Giuliani’s claim in a recent court filing that he could not perform further searches of emails and other records stored in an electronic database because the vendor was seeking $320,000 to allow that. The former mayor, U.S. Attorney and Justice Department official said he simply could not afford that sum.
Howell said Giuliani’s “claim of poverty” meant that the plaintiffs were entitled to insight into his finances.
An attorney for Giuliani, Joseph Sibley, said the plaintiffs should not be provided some personal information, like court filings detailing Giuliani’s obligations in his 2019 divorce from his third wife, Judith Nathan.
But Howell said the plaintiffs were entitled to know about Giuliani’s financial condition, including the divorce-related payments, before deciding whether to help foot the bill for document searches in the case. Typically, parties must handle their own costs to comply with discovery obligations.
“I think that would be pertinent to evaluating his financial net worth,” the judge said.
Giuliani Sanctioned for Failing to Produce Records in Defamation Case (Reuters, June 23, 2023)
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea (Shaye) Moss, asked Howell to sanction Giuliani in April, accusing Giuliani of failing to fulfill “basic” obligations to turn over records sought as part of the lawsuit and refusing to detail his efforts to preserve and collect documents.
Giuliani’s lawyers maintained this his searches were adequate and argued that it would cost more than $320,000 for him to access the database containing messages from before the seizure of his devices.
The mother and daughter served as election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, in the last presidential election and assisted with the vote-counting process at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.
Georgia officials have concluded that there was no widespread voter fraud by election workers who counted ballots at the State Farm Arena in November 2020. The results of this investigation indicate that Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss did not engage in ballot fraud or criminal misconduct while working at State Farm Arena on election night. A legal matter with this network and the two election workers has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties through a fair and reasonable settlement.
U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell, who sits on the Federal District Court in Washington, D. C., awarded a default judgment against Giuliani, holding him liable on several claims, including defamation brought by Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss. Howell wrote that as a sanction for Giuliani’s failure to reimburse the $89,000 in attorneys’ fees by July 25, the jury may be instructed to “infer that he is intentionally trying to hide relevant discovery about his financial assets for the purpose of artificially deflating his net worth” when determining the amount to award Freeman and Moss.
Rudy Giuliani is liable for defaming 2 Georgia election workers, a judge says (NPR, August 30, 2023)
Giuliani had already been been found liable for defamation and he owes Freeman and Moss over $230,000 after failing to respond to parts of their lawsuit. The mother and daughter are now seeking tens of millions of dollars, claiming that they have suffered emotional and reputational harm as well as having their safety put in danger after Giuliani singled them out when he made false claims of ballot tampering in Georgia.
Rudy Giuliani’s Defamation Trial
Throughout the week, lawyers laid out the damage Giuliani’s lies have caused. They played tapes for the juries of the barrage of racist and threatening phone calls Moss and Freeman received from Giuliani’s unhinged fan base.
Then Moss took the stand to explain how she continues to suffer panic attacks, cannot find a job, and fears leaving her house due to Giuliani’s targeting.
Freeman testified that she’s borrowed and spent over $100,000 to make her home safe from MAGA threats. Eventually, she told the court, she had to move after her address was circulated online.
“I was scared to come home at dark, you know,” Freeman told the jury. “I was just scared, I knew I had to move.”
Moss sobbed during her testimony: “I’m most scared of my son finding me and or my mom hanging in front of our house on a tree having to get news at school that his mom was killed.”
Moss testified that she couldn’t even get a job at Chick-Fil-A because the interviewer saw the lies about her online and demanded to know if she was the “traitor” Giuliani falsely accused her of being.
Freeman and Moss are represented by a non-profit legal firm, Protect Democracy. Without this help, it’s unlikely-to-impossible that they would have been able to sue, as they weren’t exactly swimming in cash even before Giuliani made it impossible for Moss to get a job.
Giuliani’s defense rested Thursday morning without calling a single witness after the former mayor reversed course and decided not to take the stand. Giuliani’s lawyer had told jurors in his opening statement that they would hear from his client. But after Giuliani’s comments outside court, the judge barred him from claiming in testimony that his conspiracy theories were right.
The remarks about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were “negative, quite defamatory statements about them yet again.”
Speaking to reporters Monday evening following the first day of trial, Giuliani claimed that everything he said about the two women in the wake of the 2020 election was true. Giuliani also repeated the false claim that “they were engaged in changing votes.”
“I don’t regret it”: Rudy Giuliani. “Everything I said about them is true,” Giuliani told reporters outside the courtroom, repeating his false allegations that the two election workers were “engaged in changing votes.”
When a reporter responded there was no proof of such an allegation, Giuliani said: “Oh you’re damn right there is. Stay tuned.”
The judgment adds to growing financial and legal peril for Giuliani, who was among the loudest proponents of Trump’s false claims of election fraud that are now a key part of the criminal cases against the former president.
Freeman and Moss’ defamation lawsuit are part of a slew of legal consequences Giuliani has faced for helping Trump in 2020: He has also had his law license suspended and faces the threat of disbarment; been sued for defamation by voting machine companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic and was indicted in Georgia alongside Trump and other allies for his efforts to overturn the election in that state. (Forbes, December 11, 2023)
Giuliani’s attorney acknowledged that his client was wrong but insisted that he was not fully responsible for the vitriol the women faced. He argued that the damages the women sought was unfairly high and would financially devastate Giuliani.
He originally said Giuliani would testify but the former mayor ultimately opted against taking the stand. Giuliani had continued to repeat the false conspiracy theory asserting that the women interfered in the Georgia election.
Key Moments at a Glance (The Guardian, December 15, 2023)
- Freeman and Moss testified about the effects of lies spread by Giuliani and others who put them at the center of an election conspiracy theory. They shared examples of the racist, harassing, threatening messages they received after being publicly named by election deniers.
- Freeman testified about her experiences following Giuliani’s defamatory comments, in which he accused her of committing election fraud. “Sometimes I don’t know who I am,” said Freeman.
- Lawyers for Freeman and Moss played audio and displayed several of the racist messages they received in court. It included one of a person saying a racial slur over and over again. Another was a picture of what Freeman described as a kind of “monkey beast” and had writing on it that said “Ruby Freeman’s father”.
- Freeman said she had to leave her home for safety reasons. She hired a lawyer to help keep her name off any home-related documents for her new place. She said she felt like she has lost who she is, and her good name.
- Moss detailed how she became anxious to even leave the house, and that the false claims caused her son to be harassed, eventually failing his classes. She said she still does not really go out.
- Giuliani was initially expected to testify. But after two separate incidents of him doubling down, his team did not put him on the stand. His lawyer said the women had been through enough, but also pointed to Gateway Pundit, the rightwing media outlet, as more culpable for the harassment.
- Speaking outside court on Friday, Freeman said: “Today’s a good day. A jury stood witness to what Rudy Giuliani did to me and my daughter and held him accountable, and for that I’m thankful.Today is not the end of the road, we still have work to do. Rudy Giuliani was not the only one who spread lies about us, and others must be held accountable too. But that is tomorrow’s work.”
- Her daughter Shaye Moss also gave a statement, saying: The flame that Giuliani lit with those lies and passed to so many others to keep that flame blazing changed every aspect of our lives – our homes, our family, our work, our sense of safety, our mental health. And we’re still working to rebuild.
- Giuliani himself dismissed the verdict and told reporters outside Washington’s federal courthouse that he will appeal, saying the “absurdity of the number merely underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding”. “It will be reversed so quickly it will make your head spin, and the absurd number that just came in will help that actually,” he said.
- Ashlee Humphreys, a professor from Northwestern University and an expert witness of Freeman and Moss, walked through the significant reputational damage done to them, showing how their names are now associated with election fraud.
- Freeman and Moss’s lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, said they hope the case sends a clear message to people launching smear campaigns not to do it.
The jury began deliberations on Thursday. On Friday, December 15, they began their second day of deliberations to decide how much Rudy Giuliani must pay two former Georgia Election Works for spreading lies about them after the 2020 election that led to a barrage of racist threats and upended their lives.
Wandrea Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, were seeking tens of millions of dollars over Giuliani’s false claims accusing them of ballot fraud while the former NYC Mayor was fighting to keep Republican Donald Trump in the White House after Democrat Joseph Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
The Jurors Verdict
The verdict, after a four-day trial in Washington, came after Moss and Freeman testified in court that they feared for their lives when Giuliani falsely claimed they had tampered with votes.
The $148.1 million damages award for two Atlanta election workers is one of the most significant verdicts to date seeking accountability for those who attempted to overturn the 2020 election.
It’s not clear whether Giuliani will ever be able to pay the staggering amount. He had already been showing signs of financial strain as he defends himself against costly lawsuits and investigations stemming from his representation of Trump. In September, his former lawyer sued him, alleging Giuliani had paid only a fraction of nearly $1.6 million in legal fees he racked up.
His attorney in the defamation case told jurors that the damages the women were seeking “would be the end of Mr. Giuliani.”
Giuliani had already been found liable in the case and previously conceded in court documents that he falsely accused the women of ballot fraud. Even so, the former mayor continued to repeat his baseless allegations about the women in comments to reporters outside the Washington, D.C., courthouse this week.
Giuliani’s lawyer acknowledged that his client was wrong but insisted that Giuliani was not fully responsible for the vitriol the women faced.
Rudy Giuliani Ordered to Pay Nearly $150 Million in Damages (CNN, December 15, 2023)
Giuliani’s Response
Giuliani said he plans to appeal. “The absurdity of the number underscores the absurdity of the entire proceedings,” he told reporters, referring to the money he was ordered to pay.
Yet he stood by his defamatory comments against Moss and Freeman, again offering no proof of his claims.
“I have no doubt that my comments were made, and they were supportable and they are supportable today,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani was ordered to pay:
- $16,171,000 to Freeman for Defamation
- $16,998,000 to Moss for Defamation
- $20 million to Each Woman for Emotional Distress
- $75 million total in Punitive Damages
Giuliani Speaks After Being Ordered to Pay Georgia Election Workers (Forbes Breaking News)
Attorney John Langford told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront” Friday evening that they plan to ensure that Moss and Freeman “see every bit of money that Mr. Giuliani has available to him, to pay and satisfy this judgment” and are “looking at every option (they) have to obtain the money that he owes Ruby and Shaye.”
They plan, Langford said, to move quickly toward getting a final judgment entered in order to go to other jurisdictions where Giuliani has assets.
A few months ago, Giuliani listed his three-bedroom Manhattan apartment for sale. It’s still on the market for $6.1 million, according to public real estate listings.
It comes a day after the federal judge who oversaw the blockbuster defamation case said the two plaintiffs – Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss – can begin trying to collect from Giuliani immediately.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said in her order Wednesday that Giuliani had escaped revealing his worth by refusing to turn over evidence he had in the case before trial, never acknowledged previous court orders for him to reimburse the women for his attorneys’ fee and repeatedly claimed he’s broke and the verdict would severely hurt him.
According to the filing, Giuliani listed debts between $100 million and $500 million, and assets worth up to $10 million.
Giuliani lists nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes among his liabilities as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to lawyers and accountants.
He also lists pending lawsuits, including three defamation cases over his statements after the 2020 election that haven’t yet gone to trial and could add to his debt if he’s ordered to pay damages in those cases.
But part of the final judgment in the 2020 election defamation case against Giuliani included his acknowledgement that he defamed them with malice, which will make it harder for him to escape his debt to them.
In the meantime, Moss and Freeman’s lawyers have indicated they would move quickly to ask for liens on Giuliani’s existing properties in New York and Florida and researching entities that may be providing money to him, such as Newsmax, where he has a show.
Vindicated: Jury Makes Strong Statement for Truth (MSNBC Video)
A jury awarded election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman $148 million for defamation and the ordeal they suffered as a result of Rudy Giuliani putting them at the center of Donald Trump’s lie about his 2020 election defeat. John Langford, attorney for Shaye Moss, talks with Alex Wagner about the importance of this moment of accountability and how they intend to enforce the judgement against an evasive Giuliani.
Freeman told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Washington that her life is forever changed.
“I want people to understand this: Money will never solve all of my problems,” she said. “I can never move back into the house that I called home. I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I choose to share my name with. I miss my home. I miss my neighbors and I miss my name.”
Georgia Election Workers Defamation Lawsuit & Trial
Two Georgia Election Poll Workers Brought a Defamation Lawsuit Against Former NYC D.A. and Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Won Big!
Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis calls election workers awarded $148M in Giuliani lawsuit ‘beautiful human beings’ (Atlanta First News Staff, December 21, 2023)
Willis said “it’s evident that some of the facts are the same” in the criminal case against Giuliani, where he is charged with seeking to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia alongside former President Donald Trump. Giuliani had falsely claimed Freeman and Moss helped rig the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Willis was at a toy drive she hosted alongside NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal and the organization We All Value Excellence in South Fulton Thursday. The giveaway provided more than 1,700 families with toys during the holiday season.
Dominion Voting Systems, who Giuliani also claimed rigged the election, has sued Giuliani for defamation as well.
Rudy Giuliani’s Election Fraud Allegations and Ensuing Lawsuits
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