Giuliani's defamation damages will be ‘financially ruinous’: legal expert

A legal expert on Wednesday said former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani faces a “financially ruinous” hit after a federal judge found the former New York City mayor liable in a defamation lawsuit filed by two election workers who claimed he falsely accused them of fraud.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Wednesday’s ruling ordered Giuliani to pay $89,172.50 in attorney fees to Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea' ArShaye ("Shaye") Moss by Sept. 20.

Howell said a trial will be held to determine punitive damages in the case, which CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reports (citing legal analyst Katelyn Polantz) could reach seven figures.

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Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports that Howell accused Giuliani of intentionally violating the discovery process.

"Donning a cloak of victimization may play well on a public stage to certain audiences, but in a court of law this performance has served only to subvert the normal process of discovery," Howell said Wednesday.

Legal expert Andrew Weissman in a social media post suggested Giuliani may have had a reason for being uncooperative during discovery.

“Huge win for Freeman and Moss and defeat for Rudy, but I wonder what discovery he is hiding?” Weissmann said.

“I suspect it is pretty bad - ie criminally damning - for him to risk this result which is financially ruinous and predicated on his discovery violations.”

Moss and Freeman in a statement obtained by Cheney lauded the ruling.

"What we went through after the 2020 election was a living nightmare. Rudy Giuliani helped unleash a wave of hatred and threats we never could have imagined. It cost us our sense of security and our freedom to go about our lives," Freeman and Moss wrote. "Nothing can restore all we lost, but today's ruling is yet another neutral finding that has confirmed what we have known all along: that there was never any truth to any of the accusations about us and that we did nothing wrong," the statement said.

“We were smeared for purely political reasons, and the people responsible can and should be held accountable.”