Rudy Giuliani vows to fight $220m penalty for defaming election workers

Rudy Giuliani has vowed to fight the $US148m ($221m) defamation penalty for accusing two poll workers of rigging the 2020 US presidential election.

Rudy Giuliani walks out of the District Court in Washington. Picture: Getty Images

Rudy Giuliani has vowed to fight the $US148m ($221m) defamation penalty for accusing two poll workers of rigging the 2020 US presidential election.

Denouncing the federal jury finding as “absurd”, the former New York mayor and Donald Trump adviser said: “I am quite confident when this case gets ­before a fair tribunal, it’ll be ­reversed so quickly it’ll make your head spin,” he said outside the court on Friday (Saturday AEDT).

Mr Giuliani also appeared to double down on his baseless allegations against Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.

“I have no doubt that my comments were made and they were supportable and are supportable today,” he said. “I just did not have an opportunity to present the evidence that we offered.”

Mr Giuliani defended his decision not to testify, saying it “didn’t seem like it was going to do much to persuade anybody”.

The eight-person federal jury awarded the mother and daughter more than $US16m each for defamation, $US20m each for emotional distress and $US75m in punitive damages. The 79-year-old former mayor was found liable in August of ­defaming the poll workers with his 2020 election lies on behalf of the former president.

Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss speak outside the court in Washington after the damages decision. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Giuliani, who led Mr Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the results of the election, posted a video of Ms Freeman and Ms Moss that falsely accused them of engaging in fraud during ballot-counting and made other baseless claims about them.

The African-American women told the jury during the four-day trial that the false accusations of election fraud made against them by Mr Giuliani had up-ended their lives and they were the target of racist threats.

Outside court, Ms Freeman said Mr Giuliani wasn’t alone in spreading lies about her and her daughter, “and others must be held accountable, too”.

“For now, I want people to understand this: Money will never solve all my problems. 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 neighbours, and I miss my name.”

The defamation case is just one of several legal challenges facing Mr Giuliani, who has been indicted on racketeering charges in Georgia along with Mr Trump and others for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state.

Mr Giuliani was New York mayor from 1994 to 2001, guiding the city through the shock of the September 11 attacks and becoming known as “America’s Mayor”, before signing up as Mr Trump’s personal lawyer while he was in the White House.

His licence to practise law has been suspended in New York and in Washington for “false and misleading statements” he made as part of his efforts to overturn the results of the election won by Joe Biden.

Joe Biden’s son Hunter has also filed a lawsuit against Mr ­Giuliani, accusing him of computer fraud for accessing personal data on his computer.

In 2020, in a bid to embarrass Joe Biden ahead of the election, Giuliani and Trump allies circulated data from a laptop that Hunter Biden had abandoned at a com­puter repair shop in Delaware.