(NEW YORK) — After hours of searching the rubble of a partial building collapse in the Bronx, the New York Fire Department said no victims were found.
Two people sustained minor injuries — the only report of injuries in the incident — as the building was evacuated.
Authorities said they were first alerted that the corner of a building in the Bronx had collapsed around 3:38 p.m. ET.
Responding to the scene within two minutes, the fire department evacuated the rest of the building and began searching through the rubble.
At a news briefing, Fire Department Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said the team would not stop the search until they found someone or confirmed there was no one under the rubble. Emergency responders used their hands, drones, robotics and canine units during the search.
Just after 10 p.m. ET, the Fire Department confirmed no victims had been found.
“For hours, FDNY members searched for potential victims of the partial building collapse at 1915 Billingsley Terrace,” read a post on the fire department’s X social media page. “They have gone through a large pile of debris, 12 feet high in spots, and found no victims. Two civilians sustained minor injuries during the evacuation.”
Kavanagh said the department was thankful there were no serious injuries in the collapse.
“Miraculously, no one was severely injured at the partial building collapse at 1915 Billingsley Terrace,” Kavanagh wrote on X Monday night. “From looking at the scene and surveillance footage, it could have been so much worse. We waited anxiously as @FDNY members methodically went through the debris pile.”
(WASHINGTON) — Ten teens were charged on Monday in a string of carjackings in Washington, D.C., authorities said, amid what law enforcement calls a sharp rise in the crime in the nation’s capital.
The 10 suspects are believed to be involved in two separate carjacking rings in D.C., authorities said: The teens, who are being charged as adults, are allegedly responsible for at least 15 vehicle thefts and held victims at gunpoint, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, said at a news conference.
The charges represented the largest federal carjacking arrest in D.C. this year, Graves said.
He said the charges were a “serious response to show people that this is not a game. This is the real world and there will be real-world consequences.”
The teenagers allegedly had a group chat “discussing some of the carjackings covered by these indictments,” Graves told reporters on Monday, adding, “One defendant wrote ‘GTA IRL,’ which we allege means ‘Grand Theft Auto’ in real life.”
Carjackings have skyrocketed in the nation’s capital, according to officials: With a few days left in the calendar year, there have been 932 carjackings in 2023 in Washington — 77% of which involved guns. Only 167 people have been arrested for carjacking in the district and of those arrests, 62% were juveniles, according to authorities.
One of the teens charged on Monday allegedly shot a ride-share driver multiple times during an attempted carjacking, law enforcement said. His victim miraculously survived his injuries.
One of the groups of teens that has been charged is suspected of working together to target victims ranging from a dentist who was on the way to work to a mother with small children in her car in front of an elementary school to an elderly couple pulling into their driveway, officials said Monday.
“What we want to say very loudly and very clearly … is it is a really big deal and it will be prosecuted as such,” Graves said Monday.
Last week, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Pamela Smith testified in a closed-door bipartisan briefing to lawmakers about rising crime in the district.
House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said after the meeting that the conversation focused on “the rising, unchecked crime impacting the nation’s capital city.” Comer described the meeting as a meaningful and “productive and bipartisan discussion about rising crime.”
However, he took aim at the district’s governing council and at Graves, arguing they “have failed their basic responsibility to keep Americans safe and criminals off the streets.”
Earlier this year Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was carjacked in Washington and Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., was assaulted in her apartment building.
A day after the congressional briefing, Bowser announced a new real-time crime center, which will be a joint clearinghouse to tackle crime in and around the nation’s capital. The new effort will launch in February.
In it, D.C. police will serve alongside federal and local authorities in an effort to reduce crime in 2024.
On Monday, Graves criticized the district’s slowness to update its public-safety laws, which he said haven’t been comprehensively revised since 1901. The most recent effort to update the laws was rejected by Congress, which has oversight over the district in an unusual arrangement because it is not a state.
Graves said he has worked with Bowser and council members to come up with some solutions for combating crime.
(NEW YORK) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is on trial in Washington, D.C., this week for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Giuliani, acting on behalf of former President Donald Trump, accused the mother and daughter of committing election fraud while the two were counting ballots on Election Day in Georgia’s Fulton County.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in August awarded a default judgment to the two women, leaving this week’s trial to determine the full scope of the damages and any penalties Giuliani will have to pay.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 11, 11:03 PM EST
In filing, plaintiffs’ attorneys slam Giuliani’s remarks to press
In a filing late Monday, attorneys for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss are accusing Rudy Giuliani and his attorney of crafting arguments at trial that run afoul of the court’s prior ruling that Giuliani’s defamatory statements about the mother and daughter were false.
The filing cites ABC News’ reporting on correspondent Terry Moran’s exchange with Giuliani as the former mayor departed court, during which Giuliani said that he “told the truth” about Freeman and Moss “changing votes,” and that he should not be held accountable for the conduct of “other people overreacting.”
“According to public news reports, upon leaving the courthouse, Defendant Giuliani stopped to say to an assembled group of the press: ‘When I testify, the whole story will be definitively clear that what I said was true, and that, whatever happened to them — which is unfortunate about other people overreacting — everything I said about them is true,'” the filing says, quoting ABC News’ report.
“Needless to say,” attorneys for Freeman and Moss write, “were Defendant Giuliani to testify in a manner remotely resembling those comments, he would be in plain violation of the Court’s prior orders in this case conclusively affirming, and reaffirming, that all elements of liability have been established, including that Defendant Giuliani’s defamatory statements were false.”
Judge Howell in August awarded a default judgment to the plaintiffs, leaving the current trial to determine the amount of damages and any penalties Giuliani will have to pay. In their late Monday filing, the plaintiffs’ attorneys urged Howell to “instruct counsel for Defendant Giuliani that he has violated and is prohibited from further violating the Court’s orders by making arguments contrary to its prior evidentiary rulings.”
Dec 11, 6:31 PM EST
Giuliani insists Freeman, Moss were ‘changing votes’
Departing court after the first day of the trial, Rudy Giuliani told ABC News’ Terry Moran that he has no regrets about his treatment of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss — and he doubled down on his core allegations about them.
“When I testify, the whole story will be definitively clear that what I said was true, and that, whatever happened to them — which is unfortunate about other people overreacting — everything I said about them is true,” Giuliani told reporters.
“Do you regret what you did to Ruby and Shaye?” Moran asked.
“Of course I don’t regret it,” Giuliani said. “I told the truth. They were engaged in changing votes.”
“There’s no proof of that,” Moran responded.
“You’re damn right there is,” Giuliani retorted. “Stay tuned.”
Court will resume Tuesday at 9 a.m. ET.
Dec 11, 4:51 PM EST
Expert describes racist content ‘on a level we don’t see’
Plaintiffs’ first witness in the case is a social media monitor who testified about the deluge of “racist and graphic material” targeting Freeman and Moss that appeared online after Giuliani began accusing them by name.
Regina Scott, a retired Chicago Police Department official who now works as a security and risk analyst, testified that negative mentions about Freeman and Moss surfaced online at a prodigious rate.
A report Scott prepared identified more than 710,000 mentions of Freeman and Moss between November 2020 and May 2023, and 320,000 mentions between Aug. 18, 2023, and Nov. 11, 2023.
“The type of violent and racist and graphic material, that’s on a level we don’t see at all in our work,” Scott said.
-ABC News’ Laura Romero
Dec 11, 3:49 PM EST
Damages sought are ‘civil equivalent of death penalty,’ says attorney
Joseph Sibley, an attorney for Rudy Giuliani, implored jurors to withhold judgment of his client and consider a “fair and proportionate” monetary penalty when the trial concludes, framing the $43 million sought by Freeman and Moss as a “truly incredible” figure.
“What the plaintiffs’ counsel are asking for in this case is the civil equivalent of a death penalty,” Sibley told jurors in brief opening remarks.
Sibley, in making his case to the jury, ceding before arguments even began that Giuliani made defamatory comments about Freeman and Moss — but he refuted the notion that his comments led to the abuse that followed.
“There’s really no question that these plaintiffs were harmed,” Sibley said. “They’re good people, they didn’t deserve what happened to them.”
But Sibley urged jurors to consider only “what can actually be attributed to Mr. Giuliani.”
“He never promoted violence against these women, never made racist statements about them,” Sibley said of Giuliani. “That was other random people.”
Dec 11, 3:38 PM EST
Damage to plaintiffs should cost Giuliani ’10s of millions’
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss suffered a “perpetual nightmare,” their attorney Michael Gottlieb told the jury during his opening remarks, saying that the damage they suffered warrants an “award in the tens of millions of dollars.”
Gottlieb told jurors his clients suffered three types of damages — reputation, emotional and punitive — due to Giuliani’s “defamation campaign.”
In addition to the costs to “repair their reputation,” Gottlieb told jurors that Freeman and Moss’ award should account for lost wages, forced relocation, security expenses, and more.
-ABC News’ Laura Romero
Dec 11, 3:00 PM EST
Giuliani used accusers as ‘cornerstone’ of conspiracy, says lawyer
Rudy Giuliani sought to use Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss “as a cornerstone” of his campaign to denigrate the 2020 presidential election, prompting his followers to turn their ire toward the two election workers, their attorney, Von DuBose, told the jury in his opening remarks.
DuBose described how Giuliani slandered Freeman and Moss to his “massive national audience” and accused the mother and daughter of rigging ballots in President Joe Biden’s favor.
“None of that — none of that — is true. But the millions of people who heard the lies didn’t wait for confirmation,” DuBose said. “And the response from those Giuliani called to action was swift. It was racist.”
Dubose played audio recordings of several voicemails left on Freeman and Moss’ phones after Giuliani targeted them by name, including threats of violence and racist name-calling.
Many of the voicemails cited the USB drive Giuliani falsely told Georgia state legislators that the two were “surreptitiously passing around … as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine.”
Then, DuBose said, “Words turned into action.”
“Strange people” showed up at Freeman and Moss’ home looking for them, DuBose said, with some attempting to “make citizens’ arrests.”
“This case is about how Giuliani … made their names a call to action for millions of people who did not want to believe” the results of the 2020 election, DuBose said.
Dec 11, 2:42 PM EST
Jury instructed on Giuliani’s defamatory comments
Judge Beryl Howell, following a break, delivered a lengthy statement to jurors about details of the case — including her determination that Rudy Giuliani has already been found liable for his defamatory comments.
Howell emphasized that the panel must assume that Giuliani failed to cooperate with his discovery requirements in the case in an effort to “artificially deflate” his net worth, and that jurors must understand that Giuliani benefitted financially from his defamatory comments about Freeman and Moss.
“Your job, ladies and gentlemen, is to determine the facts,” Howell said.
Howell reminded jurors that their sole responsibility is to determine the damages associated with Giuliani’s comments.
As Howell ticked through jury instructions, Giuliani intermittently shook his head and exchanged glances with his attorney.
Dec 11, 11:11 AM EST
Judge asks juror prospects about MAGA, QAnon slogans
Prospective jurors are commonly asked to divulge any affiliations with parties in the case, or preconceived views about them. But in this case — a heavily politicized matter involving election lies — Judge Howell’s questioning has veered into some of the cryptic slogans of the far-right movement.
Howell is asking prospective jurors whether they had ever used the expression “Let’s Go Brandon” — a common refrain among President Joe Biden’s detractors — or the hashtag “WWG1WGA,” a motto associated with the QAnon movement.
She is also asking jurors whether they follow Giuliani’s social media channels.
The prospective jurors reflect the unique makeup of nation’s capitol. Among those who have been questioned: a Defense Department official, a U.S. Forest Service official, a Defense Intelligence Agency official, and a woman who had worked for the Girl Scouts.
Dec 11, 10:40 AM EST
Giuliani faces Freeman, Moss for 1st time
When Rudy Giuliani entered the courtroom some 20 minutes late due to delays with the courthouse security line, it was the first time he shared a room with Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
Freeman and Moss kept their backs turned away from Giuliani as he entered the courtroom. Moss appeared to swivel her chair slightly to avoid facing him directly.
Giuliani took a seat at the defendant’s table alongside his attorney, Joseph Sibley.
While waiting for Giuliani, Sibley had asked Judge Howell’s permission for Giuliani to bypass the security line moving forward. She said she would discuss it with court personnel, but laid the blame at Giuliani’s feet for his arriving “tardily.”
Dec 11, 10:11 AM EST
Judge welcomes prospective jurors to courtroom
Judge Howell has begun reading instructions to dozens of prospective jurors, after proceedings were delayed slightly due to Giuliani’s late arrival and some apparent issues with juror paperwork.
Howell rose and swore in jurors before the selection process got underway. She emphasized that she would endeavor to seat an impartial and unbiased jury.
“The court has already determined that Mr. Giuliani is liable for defamation, and that Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss are entitled to receive compensation, including in the form of punitive damages, for Mr. Giuliani’s willful conduct,” Howell told jurors.
“The only issue remaining in this trial is for the jury to determine any amount of damages Mr. Giuliani owes to plaintiffs for the damage caused by his conduct,” Howell said.
Dec 11, 9:53 AM EST
Ruling could be another blow to Giuliani’s finances
The $15.5 million to $43 million that Freeman and Moss are seeking from Giuliani reflects the emotional distress and monetary losses associated with the former mayor’s defamatory comments, according to attorneys for the mother and daughter.
If the plaintiffs receive anywhere near those figures, it would mark the latest financial blow to a man who once raked in tens of millions of dollars through security consulting and speaking fees.
Judge Beryl Howell has already ordered Giuliani to pay Freeman and Moss upwards of $230,000 as a sanction for failing to comply with the discovery process of sharing information relevant to the case. In court filings over the summer, Giuliani’s lawyer asked the judge if Giuliani could defer payment, citing the former mayor’s “financial difficulties” as a result of fighting a slew of litigation elsewhere.
Giuliani stands to owe millions more if he loses cases brought by two voting machine companies and his own longtime personal attorney, among other legal challenges he faces. Giuliani has denied all claims.
Dec 11, 8:24 AM EST
Jury selection begins this morning
Jury selection in the case gets underway at the D.C. federal courthouse this morning, where eight Washington residents will be chosen to serve.
Jurors will be tasked with attaching a monetary value to the harm caused by the defamatory statements a judge found Rudy Giuliani liable for making in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
When the parties arrive in court this morning, it will be the first time Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss face Giuliani in person.
(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has asked the Supreme Court to step in and decide the issue of presidential immunity regarding former President Donald Trump’s federal election interference charges.
Smith is asking the court to immediately resolve the issue, to prevent any delay of the March 4 trial date.
“Respondent’s appeal of the ruling rejecting his immunity and related claims, however, suspends the trial of the charges against him, scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024,” the special counsel wrote in a filing Monday. “It is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected.”
In October, Trump’s legal team filed its first motion to dismiss the case, citing what Trump’s lawyers claim is his “absolute immunity” from prosecution for actions taken while serving in the nation’s highest office.
The judge overseeing the case, D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, rejected the motion.
Trump has appealed to the circuit court and asked for all proceedings to be stayed in the matter, pending appeal. Over the weekend, Smith’s team said the district court should deny the request to halt the proceedings.
The case Smith cites in asking the Supreme Court to step in by using “certiorari before judgment” — essentially a line-skip before an appeals court has a chance to weigh in — is the United States v. Nixon, when President Richard Nixon refused to hand over secret White House tape recordings to a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal.
Historically, the rare procedure is only granted in cases that are of “imperative” importance to the public, as Smith himself acknowledges.
“The United States recognizes that this is an extraordinary request,” Smith’s filing says. “This is an extraordinary case.”
“Smith is willing to try for a Hail Mary by racing to the Supreme Court and attempting to bypass the appellate process,” a spokesperson for Trump said in a statement. “There is absolutely no reason to rush this sham to trial except to injure President Trump and tens of millions of his supporters.”
The move could represent an enormous risk for Smith, whose entire case against Trump could hinge on a landmark decision from the Supreme Court that could — for the first time in American history — determine whether a former U.S. president can be prosecuted for actions taken while in office.
“It requires no extended discussion to confirm that this case — involving charges that respondent sought to thwart the peaceful transfer of power through violations of federal criminal law — is at the apex of public importance,” Smith writes.
“The charges implicate a central tenet of our democracy,” Smith says in the filing. “And the charges allege that respondent conspired to transgress the law in manifold ways: by intentionally using fraudulent means to obstruct the presidential electoral process; by obstructing constitutionally prescribed processes in Congress for counting electoral votes; and by seeking to deprive millions of voters of their electoral choice for President.”
Trump in August pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election by enlisting a slate of so-called “fake electors,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations,” trying to enlist the vice president to “alter the election results,” and promoting false claims of a stolen election as the Jan. 6 riot raged — all in an effort to subvert democracy and remain in power.
Jiang Feibo/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — With mostly clear to partly cloudy skies expected over much of the United States, this year’s Geminid meteor shower is forecast to offer one of the best cosmic shows in recent years, according to astronomers.
Shooting star-like debris from the 3200 Phaethon asteroid, a 3.17-mile wide space rock orbiting the Earth at a distance of more than 6.4 million miles, is expected to be at its peak on Wednesday night, according to NASA.
“The forecast looks very favorable, and that is everything,” Bart Fried, executive vice president of the Amateur Astronomers Association in New York, told ABC News.
In some parts of the county, stargazers can expect to see up to 120 meteors per hour streaking across the sky, according to Fried. But in places like New York City, with its brightly lit skyline, would-be astronomers might see 20 to 30 meteors per hour, or one every two minutes during the peak, Fried said.
He said the best time to view the meteor shower will be between 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday and 1 a.m. on Thursday.
“Do not bother with binoculars or telescopes. This is absolutely a naked-eye event,” Fried said. “Relax your eyes. Let your peripheral vision do the work.”
This year’s peak meteor shower will coincide with a new moon, enhancing the view, Fried said.
“This is a 1% moon, almost no moon,” Fried said. “In terms of light pollution, you want to go to the darkest sight you can find.”
The best view is expected to be from the Northern Hemisphere, according to NASA
For optimal sky-gazing, Fried recommended going to a park or a beach.
“Go to a sight where you have a good horizon,” Fried said. “You don’t want to be surrounded by tall trees. You don’t want to be surrounded by tall buildings.”
Fried, an amateur astronomer for 50 years, also suggested dressing in warm clothes and bringing a lawn chair “because you’re going to be sitting still for a while.”
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation announced that several Long Island state parks, including Jones Beach State Park and Robert Moses State Park, will remain open during the night hours on Wednesday and into Thursday for those wanting to see the meteor shower.
The National Weather Service is forecasting mostly clear skies over New York and up and down the Eastern Seaboard on Wednesday and Thursday.
Considered one of the year’s most reliable meteor showers, the Geminids occur every December when Earth passes through a vast trail of dusty debris shed by a 3200 Phaethon. The debris burns up when it runs into the Earth’s atmosphere, Fried said.
The Geminid meteors are named for the constellation Gemini, from which they appear to come, Fried said.
(NEW YORK) — The Texas woman who filed a lawsuit last week asking for an emergency abortion is now leaving the state to get care, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
After the judge allowed her to get an abortion, the Texas Supreme Court put that decision on hold.
The woman, Kate Cox, had filed a lawsuit against the state over its restrictive abortion bans, asking a judge to grant her a temporary restraining order that would allow her to get an abortion.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is on trial in Washington, D.C., this week for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Giuliani, acting on behalf of former President Donald Trump, accused the mother and daughter of committing election fraud while the two were counting ballots on Election Day in Georgia’s Fulton County.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in August awarded a default judgment to the two women, leaving this week’s trial to determine the full scope of the damages and any penalties Giuliani will have to pay.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 11, 11:11 AM EST
Judge asks juror prospects about MAGA, QAnon slogans
Prospective jurors are commonly asked to divulge any affiliations with parties in the case, or preconceived views about them. But in this case — a heavily politicized matter involving election lies — Judge Howell’s questioning has veered into some of the cryptic slogans of the far-right movement.
Howell is asking prospective jurors whether they had ever used the expression “Let’s Go Brandon” — a common refrain among President Joe Biden’s detractors — or the hashtag “WWG1WGA,” a motto associated with the QAnon movement.
She is also asking jurors whether they follow Giuliani’s social media channels.
The prospective jurors reflect the unique makeup of nation’s capitol. Among those who have been questioned: a Defense Department official, a U.S. Forest Service official, a Defense Intelligence Agency official, and a woman who had worked for the Girl Scouts.
Dec 11, 10:40 AM EST
Giuliani faces Freeman, Moss for 1st time
When Rudy Giuliani entered the courtroom some 20 minutes late due to delays with the courthouse security line, it was the first time he shared a room with Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
Freeman and Moss kept their backs turned away from Giuliani as he entered the courtroom. Moss appeared to swivel her chair slightly to avoid facing him directly.
Giuliani took a seat at the defendant’s table alongside his attorney, Joseph Sibley.
While waiting for Giuliani, Sibley had asked Judge Howell’s permission for Giuliani to bypass the security line moving forward. She said she would discuss it with court personnel, but laid the blame at Giuliani’s feet for his arriving “tardily.”
Dec 11, 10:11 AM EST
Judge welcomes prospective jurors to courtroom
Judge Howell has begun reading instructions to dozens of prospective jurors, after proceedings were delayed slightly due to Giuliani’s late arrival and some apparent issues with juror paperwork.
Howell rose and swore in jurors before the selection process got underway. She emphasized that she would endeavor to seat an impartial and unbiased jury.
“The court has already determined that Mr. Giuliani is liable for defamation, and that Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss are entitled to receive compensation, including in the form of punitive damages, for Mr. Giuliani’s willful conduct,” Howell told jurors.
“The only issue remaining in this trial is for the jury to determine any amount of damages Mr. Giuliani owes to plaintiffs for the damage caused by his conduct,” Howell said.
Dec 11, 9:53 AM EST
Ruling could be another blow to Giuliani’s finances
The $15.5 million to $43 million that Freeman and Moss are seeking from Giuliani reflects the emotional distress and monetary losses associated with the former mayor’s defamatory comments, according to attorneys for the mother and daughter.
If the plaintiffs receive anywhere near those figures, it would mark the latest financial blow to a man who once raked in tens of millions of dollars through security consulting and speaking fees.
Judge Beryl Howell has already ordered Giuliani to pay Freeman and Moss upwards of $230,000 as a sanction for failing to comply with the discovery process of sharing information relevant to the case. In court filings over the summer, Giuliani’s lawyer asked the judge if Giuliani could defer payment, citing the former mayor’s “financial difficulties” as a result of fighting a slew of litigation elsewhere.
Giuliani stands to owe millions more if he loses cases brought by two voting machine companies and his own longtime personal attorney, among other legal challenges he faces. Giuliani has denied all claims.
Dec 11, 8:24 AM EST
Jury selection begins this morning
Jury selection in the case gets underway at the D.C. federal courthouse this morning, where eight Washington residents will be chosen to serve.
Jurors will be tasked with attaching a monetary value to the harm caused by the defamatory statements a judge found Rudy Giuliani liable for making in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
When the parties arrive in court this morning, it will be the first time Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss face Giuliani in person.
(WASHINGTON) — Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss described living in a perpetual state of fear after Rudy Giuliani targeted the two Georgia election workers with conspiracy-fueled lies in the wake of the 2020 election.
This week, a jury will tally the cost of those lies when Freeman and Moss’ defamation suit against Giuliani goes to trial in Washington, D.C.
A federal judge has already found the former New York City mayor liable for defamatory comments he made about the mother and daughter. The trial, slated to begin Monday, will determine the full scope of the damages and any penalties he will have to pay. Freeman and Moss are seeking between $15.5 million and $43 million.
“While nothing will fully repair all of the damage that Giuliani and his allies wreaked on our clients’ lives, livelihoods, and security, they are eager and ready for their day in court, to continue their fight for accountability and amends,” attorneys for the two women said in a statement ahead of the trial.
Giuliani, acting on behalf of former President Donald Trump, engaged in a sprawling misinformation campaign in late 2020 and early 2021 after Joe Biden secured the presidency, hopscotching across the country in search of evidence that the election was rigged.
He never found it. But in the process, his unfounded claims about Freeman and Moss — that they had manipulated ballots in Fulton County, Georgia — prompted a deluge of threats that ultimately drove Freeman from her home.
“I don’t want to have to leave my home,” Freeman told ABC News’ Terry Moran in an exclusive interview last year. “I don’t want this, but I have no choice. Because of what? The ‘Big Lie.'”
The so-called “Big Lie” — the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen — remains a centerpiece of Trump’s campaign to retake the White House in 2024.
During some of the most stirring testimony of last year’s House Jan. 6 select committee hearings on Capitol Hill, Freeman and Moss described how Trump and Trump-aligned media outlets unleashed a torrent of accusations against the mother and daughter, falsely claiming they had engaged in election fraud.
During an appearance before the Georgia state legislature a month after the election, Giuliani told lawmakers that a video circulating online showed “Ruby Freeman and Shaye Freeman Moss … quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports, as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine.”
Freeman later said the video showed her handing ginger mint candies to Moss, who was experiencing stomach pain at the time. In the ensuing months, the women faced accusations online, by phone, and in person.
“I just got so sad,” Freeman told ABC News last year. “How dare you compare us to drug dealers? Oh, I was done.”
Giuliani has said that, while he “does not contest the factual allegations” made by Freeman and Moss regarding his statements, the statements themselves were constitutionally protected.”
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who will oversee the trial, has already levied harsh sanctions against Giuliani over his failure to comply with discovery requests, awarding Freeman and Moss more than $230,000.
According to Freeman and Moss’ legal team, the range of $15.5 million to $43 million cited in court papers includes costs associated with Moss’ loss of work and her “need to secure and relocate from her home.”
Attorneys for Moss and Freeman said they expect their case to last two to three days, and they held out the possibility of calling Giuliani to the witness stand.
They also indicated in court papers that in order to help argue their case, they were planning to present physical evidence: a ginger mint.
(NEW YORK) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is on trial in Washington, D.C., this week for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Giuliani, acting on behalf of former President Donald Trump, accused the mother and daughter of committing election fraud while the two were counting ballots on Election Day in Georgia’s Fulton County.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in August awarded a default judgment to the two women, leaving this week’s trial to determine the full scope of the damages and any penalties Giuliani will have to pay.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 11, 8:24 AM EST
Jury selection begins this morning
Jury selection in the case gets underway at the D.C. federal courthouse this morning, where eight Washington residents will be chosen to serve.
Jurors will be tasked with attaching a monetary value to the harm caused by the defamatory statements a judge found Rudy Giuliani liable for making in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
When the parties arrive in court this morning, it will be the first time Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss face Giuliani in person.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump, fighting to maintain the real estate empire that helped propel him to the White House, spent at least $2.5 million on expert testimony on expert witnesses who have testified in his New York civil fraud trial over the last month, according to a review of testimony and court records.
But the expenditure represents just a fraction of the former president’s growing legal bills, as he fends off four separate criminal trials and the lingering costs of additional civil trials using a mixture of personal funds and political donations from his supporters.
In just the first half of this year, according to the most recent disclosure report available, his Save America PAC reported more than $20 million in legal spending across various court battles, including roughly $7 million paid to defense lawyers handling his fraud case. Last week’s testimony from accounting expert Eli Bartov alone added an additional $900,000 to Trump’s legal bills.
Along with testimony from Deutsche Bank executives, Trump’s expert witnesses have been at the crux of his defense strategy after Judge Arthur Engoron, in a partial summary judgment issued before the trial started, ruled that Trump had used financial statements with fraudulent valuations to get better loan terms from lenders.
At trial, however, Engoron has repeatedly criticized Trump’s experts for offering what he’s characterized as irrelevant or redundant testimony.
“I am not trying to figure out what the value is,” the judge said after a defense witness testified about the worth of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club on Tuesday. “I don’t necessarily consider it relevant.”
“Why are we wasting our time if nobody is considering the words coming out of our experts’ mouths?” Trump’s legal spokesperson Alina Habba asked Engoron in open court on Friday.
‘Hired to say whatever it is they want’
In total, Trump’s lawyers have called a dozen experts to testify on topics ranging from contract procurement to Palm Beach residential real estate, paid at an hourly rate ranging from $350 to $1,595.
While some experts were paid less than $50,000 for their work, two experts were individually paid over $800,000 for their analysis. Real estate valuations expert Fredrick Chin was paid $850,000 for 1,000 hours of work, and New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov was paid $877,500 for 650 hours of work.
Excluding one expert who declined to estimate how many hours he worked on the case, Trump’s expert witnesses testified that they were compensated a total of $2.45 million.
Expert witnesses in New York normally charge “shockingly high rates,” according to Syracuse University College of Law professor Gregory Germain, who said the amount of resources spent on Trump’s trial contributes to “very expensive political theater.”
The state attorneys handling the case seem to agree, suggesting on Thursday that Bartov — who four years ago testified as an expert witness for the New York attorney general’s fraud case against Exxon Mobil — had a financial incentive to potentially offer biased testimony.
“This is pure speculation from someone they hired to say whatever it is they want,” state attorney Kevin Wallace said in response to testimony Bartov offered in defense of Trump.
“You make up allegations that never existed,” Bartov yelled back. “I am here to tell the truth. You ought to be ashamed of yourself for talking like that.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James called just a single expert witness — paid roughly $350,000 for his work — to provide testimony about how much Trump’s alleged deception cost his lenders in lost interest. James also retained five additional experts who have not testified, and their rate and total compensation is under seal.
‘Friends and golf buddies’
Trump used the services of an expert consulting group, as well as his personal network, to find experts for the trial.
At least three of Trump’s experts work for Ankura Consulting Group, which employs more than 200 expert witnesses. An Ankura spokesperson declined to comment about the company’s engagement with Trump.
Trump was personally involved with recruiting Palm Beach-based real estate broker Lawrence Moens to testify at the trial after running into him at Mar-a-Lago, where he is a member.
“I hadn’t seen him in quite some time, and he said, ‘Can I ask you if you would help me with something? I’ve got an issue in New York that I’m dealing with. I would like to see if you could render an opinion for my attorneys,'” Moens explained during his testimony.
Moens was paid $975 an hour to determine the value of Mar-a-Lago, which he testified is worth more than a billion dollars.
Two witnesses also testified in Trump’s defense at no cost to the former president, citing their personal relationship with Trump.
Steven Witkoff, who was qualified as an expert in real estate development, has donated, together with family members, nearly $2 million to Trump’s various fundraising committees over the last few years, and last week hosted a $23,000-per-ticket fundraiser for Trump, which the former president attended instead of participating in the fourth GOP debate.
Witkoff said he testified at no cost to Trump due their long-standing personal and business relationship.
“He’s been a really good friend to me and my family, particularly after the death of my son,” Witkoff said on the witness stand.
Gary Giulietti, an insurance underwriter whose company made $1.2 million in commission from Trump in 2022, also testified as an expert at no cost to Trump. In addition to occasionally golfing and sharing meals with Trump, Giulietti said his testimony was “included in the business relationship” with the Trump Organization.
In a statement following their testimony, New York Attorney General Letitia James criticized Trump for using his “friends and golf buddies” as experts.
‘Nothing will have any bearing’
When defense lawyers called Witkoff as their first expert witness, Judge Engoron barred him from testifying in support of an argument that assets that were overvalued on Trump’s financial statements were allegedly balanced out by assets that were undervalued.
“The reader of the financial statement has the right to know whether each particular number was accurate,” Engoron said in sustaining an objection from state attorneys.
The testimony of zoning expert John Shubin — which cost Trump at least $125,000 — was largely reduced to reading documents into the record after Engoron ruled that the status of a deed restriction governing the use of Mar-a-Lago was a conclusion of law, about which experts cannot testify.
Trump’s lawyer Chris Kise requested that Shubin’s testimony continue for the defense’s record when they appeal — an approach that Professor Germain told ABC News could help the defense’s case.
“Those issues will be front and center on appeal, and it’s important for the Trump Organization to create a factual record that preserves the legal issues on appeal,” Germain said.
The defense’s frustration with Engoron appeared to come to a head Friday after state attorneys objected to defense attorneys questioning Bartov about the value of the assets listed in Trump’s financial statements.
“If they don’t call anyone to dispute our values, how have they proven their case?” Kise said, arguing that the state had failed to prove what they claimed the values should have been.
“You can’t just say it’s a misstatement because you feel like it,” he argued, saying there has to be “some sort of standard.”
“The standard is truth,” Engoron responded, reiterating the findings in his pretrial ruling.
It appeared that even Trump began to feel that his experts’ testimony was unlikely to convince Engoron. Despite reiterating to reporters Thursday that his accounting expert “found absolutely no fraud,” the former president remarked that “I’m sure nothing will have any bearing on what this judge does.”
‘My poll numbers are the highest’
As much as Trump has spent on experts in this trial, he stands to more than cover that amount through a boost in fundraising.
Trump’s team has been aggressively fundraising off of his court developments this year, blasting out multiple fundraising emails to supporters every day about his indictments, court appearances and gag orders — as well as promoting campaign merchandise featuring his famous mug shot from Atlanta’s Fulton County jail.
Donations collected through such fundraising efforts are split between Trump’s third presidential campaign committee and his Save America PAC, which was originally set up as a leadership PAC shortly after Election Day 2020.
It’s not known how much Trump’s civil fraud trial has helped his fundraising, because his latest campaign disclosure covers through the end of September, while the trial started in early October. But records show that Trump’s criminal charges earlier this year were followed by a boost in campaign donations, including at least $9 million raised in the week after his Fulton County mug shot was released.
While exiting court on Thursday, Trump credited the ongoing trial with driving his poll numbers to a new high.
“It’s driving up my polls because the people of our country get it. My poll numbers are the highest I’ve ever had,” he said.
