$148,000,000
A jury on Friday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers who said he had destroyed their reputations with lies that they tried to steal the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump.
Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington had already ruled that Mr. Giuliani had defamed the two workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The jury had been asked to decide only on the amount of the damages.
The jury awarded Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss a combined $75 million in punitive damages. It also ordered Mr. Giuliani to pay compensatory damages of $16.2 million to Ms. Freeman and $16.9 million to Ms. Moss, as well as $20 million to each of them for emotional suffering.
Good. I have no idea how much of that they’ll actually get, but I like the underlying principle. Powerful rich people should not bully and defame and lie about powerless non-rich people, especially for such corrupt reasons as stealing an election to install an evil toad as dictator.
Mr. Giuliani, who helped lead Mr. Trump’s effort to remain in office after his defeat in the 2020 election but has endured a string of legal and financial setbacks since then, was defiant after the proceeding.
“I don’t regret a damn thing,” he said outside the courthouse, suggesting that he would appeal and that he stood by his assertions about the two women.
What a disgusting rotten human being.
Mr. Giuliani’s net worth is unknown because he refused to comply with the court’s requirement to provide that information. A lawyer familiar with his legal situation said after the verdict that Mr. Giuliani was likely to file for bankruptcy protection. But because the damages he owes Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss are considered an “intentional tort,” bankruptcy would not erase his liability, lawyers said.
Now do Trump.
Good.
The sum is ridiculous, but emotionally very satisfying. I hope that his assets are stripped to the point he can live his toxic life out in a shabby bedsit.
He has showed that whatever integrity he once might have posessed had a price – I hope that he’s prepared to pay it forward. I’m sure that his innocent victims will be perfectly content with a quarter of that sum, should he feel like bargaining, and that might well be what the jury considered when they almost quadrupled the asking price. I’m equally sure that they’d happily take property in lieu of cash.
It seems to me that, finally, a wealthy man has decided to find a way to have to sleep under a bridge.
(And yes, Trump next, please!)