Rudy Giuliani will not take stand in defamation trial despite promising to do so

December 14, 2023 09:39 AM

In a surprising reversal, Rudy Giuliani will not testify in his civil defamation trial, his lawyers announced Thursday morning.

Giuliani was expected to take the stand as the only defense witness. His absence likely means lawyers will go straight to closing arguments when the hearing begins at 10 a.m.

Two Georgia election workers are suing him for millions of dollars in damages for repeatedly pushing bogus conspiracy theories about them trying to fix the 2020 presidential election.

It’s unclear why Giuliani, who had promised less than 24 hours earlier to take the stand, chose to stand down.

Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, told jurors in tearful testimony over two days how they were “terrorized” Giuliani’s lies upended their lives and damaged their reputations.

The former New York mayor’s accusations against them led to threats, harassment, and harm, they said. The duo, who are black, got messages from people claiming they deserved to be hanged and hanged close enough to the United States Capitol so the public could “hear their necks snap.”

Giuliani falsely claimed Freeman and Moss had engaged in nefarious activity to give President Joe Biden the edge in Georgia over former President Donald Trump. Giuliani had been briefly tapped to head Trump’s legal strategy in the immediate aftermath of his loss.

Capitol Riot Investigation The Hearings — FILE – Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother, Ruby Freeman, right, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, June 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Specifically, in the days, weeks, and months following the 2020 presidential election, which saw Trump lose a second term, Giuliani claimed Freeman and Moss “engaged in surreptitious illegal activity” and said they were caught on camera “quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine.” The USB port Giuliani spoke about turned out to be a ginger mint.

The claims about Freeman and Moss were quickly debunked by Georgia election officials but that did not stop Giuliani, who has maintained he has every right to question what he believed was election fraud. He conceded in July that he made public comments falsely claiming Freeman and Moss had committed fraud while counting ballots at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta but claimed his statements were protected under his First Amendment rights.

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Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani arrives at the federal courthouse in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

District Judge Beryl Howell has already found Giuliani liable for defamation and civil conspiracy for his false statements about the two Georgia election workers. This week’s trial is about damages awarded to Freeman and Moss, who are seeking $15.5 million to $43 million. The jury could also add millions in punitive damages.

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During his opening statement, Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph A. Sibley IV, attempted to off-load the blame.

While he said that there was “no question these claimants were harmed” and that “they didn’t deserve what happened to them,” he added, “What happened to them happened because of a controversy involving a lot of people, not just Rudy Giuliani.”