Rudy Giuliani, in an unexpected twist, won’t testify in his defamation trial being brought by two former Georgia election workers, Giuliani’s lawyer said Thursday.
Giuliani had been listed as a witness, and for days, the former New York City mayor told reporters he intended to testify to tell his story.
After saying definitively earlier in the week that he would testify, Giuliani cast a hint of doubt upon leaving the courthouse Wednesday night.
“I intend to, but you always leave them guessing,” Giuliani said of his testimony.
Former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss sued Giuliani two years ago on claims of “defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, and punitive damage.” The mother-daughter duo is pursuing upward of $43.5 million in damages after facing a deluge of threats over being baselessly accused of committing election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani told reporters Wednesday they should “assume” he would testify, but the former federal prosecutor declined to outright confirm he would.
“When I was a prosecutor, defense lawyers never told me if the guy was gonna testify,” Giuliani said.
The defamation trial was defined by testimony from Freeman and Moss, both of whom detailed the violent and racist threats they received after Giuliani’s claims about them, causing their lives to spiral out of control.
Moss described being diagnosed with major depressive disorder and acute stress disorder as a result of the onslaught, telling the jury she has “a lot of dark moments” and no longer goes out alone. She also said she left her job with the Fulton County Registration and Elections office in Georgia after becoming a “pariah” among her colleagues and being passed up for an expected promotion.
Freeman said she was “terrorized” by an influx of messages to her business email, personal phone and social media that called her racial slurs and depicted racist imagery. One email wished she and Moss would be hanged from the “Capitol dome” — and that the writer would be sitting close enough to “hear your necks snap.” The threats made her fearful to be recognized by name.
“I don’t have a name no more,” Freeman testified Wednesday through tears, struggling to get her words out.
With Giuliani’s expected testimony canceled, a jury of eight Washington, D.C., residents will begin deliberating over how much the mother and daughter are owed after closing arguments.