Rudy Giuliani appeals $148 million Georgia defamation verdict

Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Rudy Giuliani filed to appeal a judge's order that he pay $148 million to a pair of Georgia election workers that a court ruled he defamed.

Giuliani, once an attorney for former President Donald Trump, filed the notice of appeal late Tuesday night challenging the verdict in the case that found he made defamatory statements about election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, when repeatedly said they had committed voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Also Tuesday, Giuliani filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law in his effort to overturn the defamation verdict. He claims his defamatory comments were not actual malice and were protected free speech under the First Amendment.

That filing seeks to throw out the defamation verdict or to "grant a new trial or alter the judgment."

These new legal filings come in the wake of Giuliani filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, which listed debts between $100 million and $500 million and assets of up to $10 million.

The judge in the defamation trial rejected First Amendment claims and another assertion that expert testimony for the plaintiffs should not have been allowed.

"The Court should have stricken the testimony and instructed the jury to disregard it," Giuliani attorney Joseph Sibley said in a court filing. "Based on this error, the jury returned an exorbitant damages award for reputation injury based on expert testimony that should not have been admitted."

Giuliani's defamation of Freeman and Moss happened as he allegedly participated in a Trump plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

Giuliani faces 13 criminal charges in the Fulton County, Georgia case that include racketeering and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath. He pleaded not guilty.

In the defamation trial, Giuliani acknowledged that he defamed Freeman and Moss with malice. That makes it a lot harder to escape the defamation debt through bankruptcy because "intentional torts" like that are covered under bankruptcy protection.

Giuliani filed for bankruptcy just a day after he was ordered to start paying the $148 million defamation judgment.

When he lied about Freeman and Moss committing election fraud Giuliani referenced security footage of the two doing their election work.

But the FBI, Georgia's GBI and the Secretary of State's Office all reviewed the footage and interviewed witnesses to determine nothing improper happened.

Days after the $148 million jury award Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani again for continuing to spread "the very same lies."