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Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss testified this week concerning the years of harassment and anguish they persisted on account of Rudy Giuliani falsely alleging they engaged in poll fraud to rig the 2020 election towards Donald Trump whilst running as election staff in Georgia.
The mummy-daughter duo one by one took the stand as a jury considers how a lot Giuliani should pay them in damages for his defamatory claims about them.
“I can’t show my name no more,” Freeman, Moss’ mom, testified Wednesday. “I miss my old neighborhood because I was me. I could introduce myself. Now I just don’t have a name.”
A federal pass judgement on discovered Giuliani responsible for defamation by means of default in August after he time and again refused to show over proof within the case. Freeman and Moss are in quest of between $14 million and $41 million from Giuliani for defamation and emotional misery.
Giuliani admitted to creating "false" statements concerning the girls however disputed that it brought about them damages in a July submitting. (He did, then again, inform newshounds Monday that his previous statements about Freeman and Moss are in reality "true," which might land him in additional felony bother.)
Freeman on Wednesday recounted the barrage of "racist" and "scary" textual content messages, emails and voicemails she started to obtain simply hours after Giuliani publicly accused her of filing false votes for Joe Biden. She additionally testified concerning the notorious telephone name between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, during which Trump named Freeman more than one occasions, calling her a "professional vote scammer" and a "hustler."
Freeman stated she used to be "devastated" when she heard a recording of the decision.
“I just felt like, 'Really?' This is the former president talking about me? Me?' How mean, how evil,” she stated, choking up. "He had no clue what he was talking about. He was just trying to put a name to somebody stealing ballots, which was totally a lie.”
Moss took the stand a day before her mother, testifying through tears as she recalled the racist messages she received as a result of Trump's and Giuliani's lies. She said that she lost her job and that her family members were threatened.
“I am most scared of my son finding me and or my mom hanging outside my house on a tree, or having to get the news at school that his momma was killed,” Moss said.
Their emotional testimonies underscore the risks of Trump’s vitriolic assaults on people — and on teams of other people — in provider of his political time table. Time and time once more, his supporters, mobilized by means of his rhetoric, have unleashed a wave of violent threats and harassment towards personal electorate and public officers.
Giuliani used to be anticipated to take the stand in his trial Thursday however in the end declined to take action. It used to be "unlucky if folks overreacted" to his claims concerning the girls, he advised newshounds Monday, however added: "In fact I do not feel sorry about it."