The bills owed by Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City-turned-longtime ally to former President Donald Trump, are nearing a quarter of a million dollars amid a defamation case brought by former election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who served in Georgia amid the 2020 presidential race. They were named in baseless conspiracy theories that alleged widespread election fraud and subsequently faced threats to their safety from believers.
The case is still heading to trial, but the only major question left for examination is the level of financial damages to impose, meaning how much Giuliani will have to pay in response to the underlying civil claims against him of defamation and related acts. A federal judge already found him liable, accepting Freeman and Moss’s allegations, as Giuliani failed to comply with pre-trial processes. The money that Giuliani already owes is meant to cover costs incurred by Freeman and Moss in association with their pushes to get him to fulfill even basic compliance expectations.
Giuliani (or Giuliani’s personal businesses, with ultimate responsibility tracing back to the former mayor) already owed nearly $133,000, and it appears the judge has agreed to compel the payment by Giuliani of an additional, subsequent amount of more than $104,000 to cover expenses from the same category.
At trial, Giuliani’s eventually determined financial obligations could easily soar into the millions of dollars, according to both relevant precedent and what the plaintiffs’ side has already telegraphed about the amounts they will seek. And that’s only the beginning, because he is also being sued for allegedly huge amounts of unpaid legal fees of his own for a now former lawyer who represented him through years of serious investigations — costs alleged to pass $1.3 million. Additionally, Giuliani is facing a lawsuit from a former employee who alleges unpaid wages and sexual harassment. He now claims he’ll be suing another individual, Cassidy Hutchinson, after she accused him of generally similar behavior (groping) — though the mounting financial obligations facing Giuliani make you wonder how he’d actually finance that.
