Rudy Giuliani ordered to pay nearly $150 million in damages

We've wrapped up our live coverage. You can read more about the Giuliani verdict here, or scroll through the posts below.

A Washington, DC, jury on Friday ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay more than $148 million to two Georgia election workers for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made following the 2020 election.  

It is the latest payout in a string of other high-profile defamation cases in recent years.

Here are some of them:

Sandy Hook families v. Alex Jones 

Dominion v. Fox News 

Amber Heard and Johnny Depp 

Cardi B v. Tasha K  

Courtroom sketch artist Bill Hennessy captured the scene inside the courtroom as the verdict was being read in the defamation damages trial against Rudy Giuliani. No cameras were allowed during the proceedings.

A jury ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and Ruby Freeman for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.

Mike Gottlieb, the attorney for Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, said the verdict that ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to the women sends a message to other people in power that they will not get away with spreading lies.

“The message that this sends is, you will not get away with it,” he told CNN, specifically referencing people “willing to trample” civil servants like election workers.

Pushing back against Giuliani’s claims that the threats and messages Moss and Freeman received did not come from him, Gottlieb said the former Trump lawyer was “patient 0” for the lies.

He specifically referenced the Georgia Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on December 3, 2020, in which Giuliani, then a Trump lawyer, spread conspiracy theories about what he referred to as widespread irregularities and fraud in the state.

Gottlieb said "if they would have taken just a moment to ask some questions" or interview poll observers who were there, instead of releasing a video Giuliani claimed showed fraud, "none of this would've happened."

After emotional testimony in the courtroom by Moss and Freeman, Gottlieb said he is happy for his clients for standing up for themselves and other election workers.

“To be able to stand up, to go into court, to testify under oath and to open themselves up and to prevail — this kind of a message from a jury is just complete vindication for everything they have done, and we’re just thrilled," Gottlieb said.

The lawyer said he will enforce the judgment and is not worried about an appeal, which Giuliani has said he will seek.

Wandrea “Shaye” Moss thanked a Washington, DC, jury Friday after Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay nearly $150 million to her and her mother for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election. 

“We’re very grateful to the jury for taking the time out of their busy lives to do their civic duty, to listen to everything that we’ve been going through," she said during a news conference following the verdict. "I know I won’t be able to retire from my job with the county like my grandmother did, but I hope by us taking these steps, these very big steps, towards justice that I can make her just as proud.”

Moss said Giuliani's lies "changed every aspect of our lives."

"We're still working to rebuild," she said.

CNN’s Mary Kay Mallonee contributed reporting to this post.

Watch here:

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Ruby Freeman said "today is a good day" after a jury ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay her and daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss for the harm they’ve suffered stemming from a series of defamatory statements Giuliani made about them following the 2020 election.

In the trial, Freeman and Moss described the flood of harassing and threatening messages they received after Giuliani and others, including former President Donald Trump, began attacking them. They told the jury how their personal and professional lives were upended by the lies, including through the loss of job opportunities, their communities, and, they said, their personal identities.

She told supporters not to be sad for her and her daughter, and not to waste their time being angry.

“If you remember one thing I say today, remember this: Faith is what carried us through the most difficult years of my life, and faith will help carry you through hardships that you face in your life,” Freeman said.

CNN’s Mary Kay Mallonee contributed reporting to this post.

Watch here:

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CNN legal analyst Elie Honig told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” that $75 million in punitive damages awarded to two Georgia election workers is intended to “send a message to Rudy Giuliani and to the general public.”

“I think that's exactly what the jury did here,” Honig said. 

“When we think about the inequities in this case, when we think about an extraordinarily powerful, remorseless liar like Rudy Giuliani, compared to these women or civil servants, they never signed up for this. Their lives were turned over and I think that's why you see such a high number here from the jury,” Honig continued. 

Giuliani has been ordered to pay nearly $150 million to Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.

Rudy Giuliani said he felt like the defamation damages trial against him was unfair and tried to downplay his role in the threats he made against Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman.

A jury ordered Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to the Georgia election workers for the harm caused by defamatory statements he made about them following the 2020 election.

“Very little I can say right now," he said outside the courtroom after the verdict was read on Friday.

“The absurdity of the number underscores the absurdity of the entire proceedings," he said, referring to the money he was ordered to pay. He said he felt like he didn’t get to offer evidence in his defense. 

Giuliani, at one point shushing the crowd of reporters, said, "The comments they received, I had nothing to do with."

He admitted the threats Moss and Freeman testified about receiving were “abominable, they’re deplorable," but he said it happens a lot in politics and that he receives “comments like that every day."

“My comments weren’t that,” Giuliani said, asserting the trial was unfair. The former Trump lawyer said he will appeal and possibly move for a new trial.

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig pushed back on Giuliani’s assertion that he didn’t get to offer evidence in his defense. Giuliani had already been found liable for defamation, Honig said, meaning he and his lawyer put on paper they were not contesting that part.

“Then in the trial we just had about damages, he had ample opportunity to put in evidence in his own defense. He did put in some evidence in his own defense, he just chose not to take the stand,” Honig said in his analysis.

On the comments that Giuliani said he gets threats every day, Honig said it is not a fair comparison.

“The threats these women received were particularly vile, racist and virulent,” he said. “Rudy Giuliani is a public figure. He puts himself out there.”

“Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss did not make themselves public figures,” Honig added, saying they were civil servants who were just counting votes.

During the trial, Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly highlighted how he doesn’t have funds to pay his various debts or to respond to the case, with his attorney Joseph Sibley claiming Freeman and Moss are asking for “the civil equivalent of the death penalty.”

“They’re trying to end Mr. Giuliani,” Sibley said.

Because Giuliani hasn’t responded to many subpoenas in the lawsuit, attorneys for Freeman and Moss said in court they couldn’t find a number.

He was previously fined more than $200,000 for some of Freeman and Moss’ attorneys’ fees, which he hasn’t paid.

Giuliani also owed more than $1 million to defense attorneys who’ve helped him on other matters, prompting them to sue him this year, and hadn’t paid nearly $60,000 for years-old unpaid phone bills. Yet at times he’s had help – including from Trump – to try to fundraise to offset some of his debts, and he was able to take a private plane to his arrest on criminal charges related to 2020 election interference in Georgia this summer.

A spokesman for Giuliani declined to comment on Friday on his current financial state.

A few months ago, Giuliani listed his 3-bedroom Manhattan apartment for sale. It’s still on the market, for $6.1 million, according to public real estate listings.

It’s also not clear if Giuliani would be able to declare bankruptcy to shield himself from any sum of damages in this lawsuit. That issue, according to people familiar with the case, may have to be decided by the courts at a later time, and it’s possible he could still be on the hook for the award to Freeman and Moss, even if he goes into bankruptcy.

In a different high-profile defamation case against far-right personality Alex Jones brought by the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, the courts have had to look at this type of issue. That same issue could arise with Giuliani’s case, the sources said.

Jones filed for bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to the shooting victims’ families, but a judge decided this fall he couldn’t use bankruptcy to avoid owing the money.