Day 3 trial highlights: Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer tries to undermine expert who said reputation repair could cost $47.8M

Freeman testified that because of ongoing threats to her safety, the FBI told her she couldn't return to her home until after the presidential inauguration in 2021.

The FBI's orders meant that Freeman was away from her home for two months, leading her to stay at a friend's house and then multiple AirBnbs. Freeman testified that it cost her over $6,000 to cover the costs of alternate housing during that time.

She added that she had to get security cameras installed at her house, something she never considered until then. Afterward, however, she had to move once her address had been circulated online.

“I was scared to come home at dark, you know,” Freeman said, visibly emotional. “I was just scared, I knew I had to move.”

Freeman said she's spent $4,635 installing and maintaining security systems at her former and current residence. Additionally, she took out $129,932 in equity from her home on Memorial Lane in October 2022.

“It’s so scary everytime I go somewhere if I have to use my name,” Freeman said.

Ruby Freeman said in her testimony this afternoon she she received threatening messages following Giuliani's allegations against her in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

Freeman testified that she “felt horrible," adding that she "was scared."

Her lawyer showed the jury multiple threatening and hateful messages that Freeman had received by email after Giuliani made his defamatory allegations — including one that claimed to be from “Grand Wizard” using the email address [email protected].

“We are coming for you and your family! Ms. Ruby, safest place for you right now is in prison. Or you will swing from the trees,” one message read. 

“Ruby Freeman, hope the Federal Government hangs you and your daughter from the Capitol dome you treasonous piece of shit! I pray that I will be sitting close enough to hear your necks snap!” another said. 

Freeman — who was seen wearing a shirt advertising her clothing boutique in the ballot counting videos that Giuliani had shared on social media — said she also received threatening messages through Instagram, Facebook, text message, voicemail and letters in the mail.

Freeman testified that she went to the police to report these threats, and during her meeting with officers, her phone was ringing nonstop.

Humphreys concluded her testimony around 3:20 p.m.

Ruby Freeman, co-plaintiff and mother of Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, has been sworn in and is now on the stand.

Sibley led a cross-examination of Humphreys this afternoon, seeking to undermine her testimony that Giuliani had significantly damaged the plaintiffs' reputations.

“You know that today’s misinformation might be tomorrow’s truth?” Sibley asked Humphreys. Giuliani's lawyer then cited the origin of the Covid virus and Hunter Biden as examples. But his remarks confused some in the room, including the judge.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer objected. Judge Howell sustained, saying: “I’m going to sustain the objection because I don’t know where you’re going with that.”

Sibley repeatedly tried to cast doubt on Humphreys' credibility. He accused the social media expert of having looked over at the plaintiffs’ lawyers multiple times before answering his questions.

“Do you have any money riding on this? Are you getting paid something if the outcome is different?” Sibley asked at one point during Humphreys' cross-examination.

As she wrapped up her direct testimony around 12:20 pm E.T., expert witness Ashlee Humphreys, a professor at Northwestern University and an expert on social media, said her analysis found that it would cost Freeman and Moss $17.8 million to $47.8 million to repair their reputation.

The plaintiffs' lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, led the questioning of Humphreys, in which she walked the jury through her report on the amount of damages Freeman and Moss should be granted based on the impact of Giuliani's defamatory statements.

The numbers reflect Humphreys' calculation that defamatory statements and statements that caused emotional harm to the plaintiffs earned hundreds of millions of impressions across social media, news websites and television.

Humphreys recommended that the plaintiffs receive an amount of damages on the higher end of that range, citing the amount of impressions and the reputational damage done to Freeman and Moss.

The social media expert will return to the stand for cross examination by Giuliani's lawyer after a lunch break. The court is set to return to session at 1:20 pm E.T.

Rudy Giuliani may have defamed two Georgia election workers again after the trial on Monday. The court already found him liable for defamation, and he’s on trial now for damages.

Giuliani spoke to reports in Washington D.C. Monday, claiming that everything he said about about the Georgia election workers in 2020 was true. He also said that he doesn’t regret making the defamatory comments, since what he said was “the truth.”

Joy Reid pointed out during her MSNBC show Tuesday that these statements directly contradict what his lawyer had described in court.

The court proceedings have paused for a 10-minute break.

Humphreys will remain on the stand when the court returns to session, continuing to testify about the reach of Giuliani's claims about Freeman and Moss, particularly on social media.

Notably, Humphreys also did the assessment of damages for and testified in the E. Jean Carroll v. Donald Trump case.

The plaintiffs' lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, asked the judge this morning to reprimand Giuliani again for remarks he made publicly last night.

After yesterday’s trial proceedings, Giuliani referred to the case as a “political hit job” in comments to reporters outside the courtroom. Later that evening, Giuliani disparaged the plaintiffs in a livestream shared to the social media platform X.

Judge Howell turned to Giuliani's lawyer, Joseph Sibley, to ask what he planned to do to curb Giuliani from speaking out again: "I know we said before you have a difficult job." Sibley responded that he would just reiterate again the repercussions to his client.

The judge also asked Giuliani directly about the comments he made last night, to which Giuliani said he didn't know he wasn't able to make them.

Giuliani said if what he said was not allowed, then it was an accident. “There’s a lot of accidents going on,” Howell replied. 

In the first 30 minutes of the trial this morning, Judge Beryl Howell went over how they would ask the jury to determine how “reasonably foreseeable” it would have been for Giuliani’s false claims against Freeman and Moss to be republished and circulated.

Howell said they could all confer on the wording of that to the jury, or else they would just need to trust her to come up with the wording. The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, said they’d confer with Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Sibley.

Gottlieb also indicated that Freeman would take the stand later, after the Atlanta poll observer and Humphreys.

Giuliani attacked Moss and Freeman in a video broadcast live on social media Tuesday night after the conclusion of the second day of the trial.

"They’re seeking $40 million. Oh, yeah. They’re seeking $40 million for the damage that I allegedly did to them. One of them did testify that she has no money. They do have an endless number of lawyers in the courtroom, however, for people that don’t have any money," Giuliani said in the video stream shared to his X account.

Giuliani continued to list off how many lawyers the plaintiffs had at their table in the courtroom, adding that the opposition's team had entered a large amount of discovery. "That's a lot of lawyers to be paying," he said.  

The jury began the third day of the trial by watching video of the deposition of a poll observer who was in State Farm Arena on election night.

Expert witness Ashlee Humphreys, a professor at Northwestern University and an expert on social media, has taken the stand. She will testify about the amount of damages she believes Freeman and Moss should receive from Giuliani.

Giuliani arrived at the courthouse at 8:38 a.m.

The trial resumes at 9 a.m., with another deposition video from a poll observer present at State Farm Arena on election night. 

An expert witness will also testify. It is possible Giuliani could be on the stand as early as this afternoon. 

Moss’ testimony yesterday came after jurors watched recorded deposition videos of investigators Frank Brown and Frances Watson, who looked into election fraud claims for the Georgia secretary of state. Brown and Watson testified that they did not find evidence to support allegations of fraud.

Brown said his investigation found no evidence of Freeman having counted ballots multiple times or scanned fraudulent ballots. He noted that sometimes ballot-counting machines jam or fail to scan, requiring the operator to scan a ballot multiple times before it is counted, and that if anyone had actually counted ballots multiple times that would have shown up on recounts.

Watson’s testimony largely mirrored Brown’s. She confirmed that observers were never kicked out of State Farm Arena in Atlanta, where the vote counting was taking place, and that fraudulent ballots weren’t brought in packed in suitcases and hidden under tables.

A former Georgia election worker testified yesterday in the trial to determine how much Giuliani will have to pay her and her mother after he was found liable for defaming them with baseless claims that they committed fraud in the 2020 election.

In her first two hours of testimony, Moss took the stand as the fourth plaintiffs’ witness in the case, detailing the negative toll the false allegations have taken on her day-to-day life. She and Freeman sued Giuliani over the bogus claims, which they say turned their lives upside down.

“I now am very anxious,” Moss testified. “I have these nonstop anxious sweats. I have a lot of dark moments. I no longer go out. I will not be caught out anywhere alone, ever.”

“I look totally different, I gained like 70 pounds. I stress eat, I cry a lot,” she added. “I’m just this whole new stressed-out person.”

Read the full story here.

Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani over false claims he made in the wake of the 2020 election, when he said they were passing around USB drives “like they were vials of heroin or cocaine” while working the polls at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. A federal judge ruled this year that Giuliani had defamed the two women and was liable for damages, to be determined during the civil trial. Freeman and Moss are seeking as much as $43 million in damages.

The trial got underway this week. On Monday, Michael Gottlieb, an attorney for the women, said their names had wrongly become synonyms for crime and fraud for many Americans who heard and believed Giuliani's false claims and that the women received racist and hateful comments in the wake of Giuliani's claims.

An attorney for Giuliani, Joseph Sibley, countered that Giuliani had not promoted racism or violence and that the damages sought by the plaintiffs would be the “civil equivalent of the death penalty” for his client. Giuliani has denied wrongdoing, calling the case a "political hit job" in comments to reporters outside of court yesterday.

In delivering her testimony yesterday, Moss described to jurors how her life has changed in the aftermath of the election, saying she suffers "nonstop anxious sweats" and "a lot of dark moments."

Moss and Freeman sued Giuliani for defamation over false claims that that they committed fraud while serving as poll workers at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta during the 2020 presidential election.

Both women were cleared of any wrongdoing following a lengthy probe by Georgia’s State Election Board that concluded this year.

In their lawsuit, they said Giuliani's claims have tarnished their lives. They're seeking as much as $43 million in damages.

During yesterday's trial, an attorney for the women argued that they received an “overwhelming” amount of “vile, racist, hateful comments” that were “fueled” by Giuliani and his co-conspirators.