Donald Trump's former lawyer Giuliani seeks new trial in defamation case

Donald Trump's ex-lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday asked a judge to rule in his favor or grant a new trial in a lawsuit by two Georgia election workers in which he was ordered to pay $148 million for falsely accusing them of election fraud.

A federal jury in Washington ordered Giuliani to pay the two workers, Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, for reputational and emotional harm they said they suffered after he falsely claimed they rigged votes against Trump.

The former New York mayor, who declared bankruptcy following the verdict, filed the legal motion after the bankruptcy judge gave him permission to challenge the damages award in the defamation case as long as he funded it with donations, rather than his own funds.

Other lawsuits against Giuliani, a leading member of Trump’s legal team as he sought to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election, have been paused because of the bankruptcy proceedings.

The jury handed down the $148 million defamation verdict in December following emotional testimony from Moss and Freeman about racist threats they received after Giuliani and other Trump allies accused them of hiding and scanning batches of illegal ballots at a vote processing center in Atlanta.

Giuliani’s lawyer argued during trial that others besides Giuliani were more responsible for the harm to Freeman and Moss.

A federal judge determined before the trial that Giuliani was liable for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy. The only question before the jury was how much to impose in damages.