WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) — Jurors will begin deliberating to decide how much Rudy Giuliani must pay two former Georgia election workers for spreading lies about them that led to a barrage of racist threats and upended their lives.

Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, are seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages over Giuliani’s false claims accusing them of ballot fraud while the former New York City mayor was fighting to keep Republican Donald Trump in the White House.

Giuliani’s lawyer told jurors the damages the women are seeking “would be the end of Mr. Giuliani.”

In his closing argument, an attorney for Moss and Freeman highlighted how Giuliani has not stopped repeating a false conspiracy theory asserting the workers meddled in the 2020 presidential election. Attorney Michael Gottlieb played a video of Giuliani outside the courthouse earlier this week repeating the false claims about his clients. Giuliani had previously conceded in court documents that he made public comments falsely accusing the women of ballot fraud.

“Mr. Giuliani has shown over and over again he will not take our client’s names out of his mouth,” Gottlieb said. “Facts will not stop him. He says he isn’t sorry and he’s telegraphing he will do this again. Believe him.”

Giuliani’s attorney acknowledged his client was wrong, but insisted  he was not fully responsible for the vitriol the women faced. He sought to pin the blame on a right-wing website that published the surveillance video of the women counting ballots.

The women’s lawyers are asking for at least $24 million for each woman in defamation damages alone. They also seek compensation for emotional harm and punitive damages. 

Giuliani’s lawyer has said any award should be much less, describing the damages the women are seeking as the “civil equivalent of the death penalty.”

Giuliani’s defense rested Thursday morning without calling a witness after the former mayor reversed course and decided not to take the stand. 

The lawyer said his client was not testifying because Freeman and Moss had “been through enough.” His testimony also could have been used against him in the criminal case in Georgia.

On the witness stand, Moss and Freeman recounted receiving hateful and threatening messages after they became the targets of the conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Trump allies. The women told jurors the lies made them fear for their lives and described how they remain scared to go out in public years later.

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