$148m damages for Rudy

Stuff reports:

A federal jury ordered Rudy Giuliani on Friday to pay US$148 million (NZ$238m) to two election workers who sued him for defamation, asserting that the former attorney for Donald Trump exposed them to a life-altering torrent of abuse and trauma by promoting false claims that they stole the 2020 election from the former president in Georgia.

The panel of five women and three men in Washington deliberated for more than nine hours before entering a stunning penalty that was more than three times the US$48m (NZ$77m) sought by the workers, in the first large judgment against an individual in Trump’s orbit for propagating the myth that vote fraud tipped the US election to President Biden.

If a jury gives three times the amount sought, that suggests they saw the case as beyond redemption for Rudy. He filed to provide even a shred of evidence for his outlandish claims.

The lives of the two women, and their families, were made hellish by these lies. It is good to see consequences.