Georgia election workers sue Rudy Giuliani for defamation – again – after winning $148 million

WASHINGTON – Two Georgia election workers who won $148 million in damages Friday from Rudy Giuliani over his false allegations of election fraud sued the former New York mayor again on Monday, asking a judge to stop him from spreading dangerous lies about them.

Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, won the defamation case in U.S. District Court based on Giuliani’s baseless accusations that they stuffed ballot boxes in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena in 2020.

But Giuliani continued to disparage the women while a jury mulled how much to award them in damages and again after the amount was revealed. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell scolded Giuliani's lawyer over one outburst, but Joseph Sibley said he couldn't control everything his client said.

“Of course I don’t regret it," Giuliani told reporters after the damages verdict. "I told the truth. They were engaged in changing votes.”

“Defendant Giuliani continues to spread the very same lies for which he has already been held liable in the Freeman I action,” the women’s lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, said in the latest lawsuit. “Before filing this lawsuit, Plaintiffs’ counsel asked Defendant Giuliani to enter into an agreement to stop publishing these and any similar false claims about Plaintiffs. Defendant Giuliani refused.”

Gottlieb asked the federal court to order Giuliani to stop talking about the women, and sought additional damages against him.

Veteran New York political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said Giuliani can't accept that he injured the women because it would undermine everything he did on behalf of former President Donald Trump while serving as his campaign lawyer in 2020.

"He has a repetitive compulsion," Sheinkopf said. "He keeps repeating what he believes to be true, even when he has been proven wrong."

Why was Giuliani found liable for defamation?

Giuliani accused the election workers “under false pretenses” of excluding observers during the vote count, of introducing “suitcases” of illegal ballots, counting the same ballots multiple times and surreptitiously passing around flash drives, according to the original lawsuit.

At a meeting with Georgia lawmakers on Dec. 10, 2020, Giuliani said they had stolen votes in plain sight and that 12,000 to 14,000 ballots had been illegally counted. Biden won the state by 11,779 votes.

Giuliani told lawmakers Freeman and Moss were "quite obviously, surreptitiously, passing around USB ports as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine." But Freeman and Moss testified at a U.S. House hearing that they were passing ginger mints.

State investigators found Giuliani’s allegations were baseless. Officials found ballots weren’t counted multiple times, as he had charged, and the suitcases of ballots were routine storage containers. A hand recount of ballots confirmed Biden’s victory.

What is the latest lawsuit about?

The latest lawsuit is based on two episodes of Giuliani talking to reporters outside the federal courthouse.

As the trial for damages began Dec. 11, Giuliani told reporters “everything I said about them was true.” He also said he didn’t regret making his comments and vowed to testify.

Giuliani later declined to testify and the trial ended without defense witnesses.

After the damages were revealed Dec. 15, Giuliani said in an interview on Newsmax he was unable to show “all the videos at the time” about “what happened at the arena.”

Despite state and federal investigators finding no fraud, the women argued in their lawsuit Giuliani's statements create the false impression that he has video evidence against them.

“Defendant Giuliani’s statements, coupled with his refusal to agree to refrain from continuing to make such statements, make clear that he intends to persist in his campaign of targeted defamation and harassment,” the women said in their lawsuit. “It must stop.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia election workers sue Rudy Giuliani – again – for defaming them