A former Georgia election worker testified she was "terrorised" by pro-Donald Trump mobs after Rudy Giuliani tweeted a video of her in 2020.

Ex-Poll worker Ruby Freeman, 64, and her daughter Wandrea Moss are suing Mr Giuliani over his false claims they played a role in election fraud.

Ms Freeman testified that she was forced to flee her home and feared for her life.

He has already been found liable, leaving only the penalties in question.

Ms Freeman and Ms Moss are seeking between $15m and $43m (£11.9m to £34m) in damages, figures which Mr Giuliani - Donald Trump's personal lawyer - claims he cannot afford. Mr Giuliani has already acknowledged in court that he made false statements about the pair.

He was slated to testify in court on Thursday, but in court his lawyers said that was no longer the case in an early morning press conference. The reasons for the reversal - which emerged as Mr Giuliani sat in court - were unclear.

In courtroom testimony in Washington DC on Wednesday, Ms Freeman recounted having to flee after a group of Trump supporters gathered at her home and the FBI told her she was in danger.

"I took it as though they were going to hang me with their ropes on my street," she said. "I was scared. I didn't know if they were coming to kill me."

Additionally, Ms Freeman said that she was left isolated after friends and acquaintances became afraid to be linked to her, and now lives a life of seclusion because of lingering fears she will be recognised publicly.

"It's so scary, any time I go somewhere, if I have to use my name," she said. "Now I don't have a name, really".

Lawyers for Ms Freeman and her daughter rested their case on Wednesday. It is unclear whether Mr Giuliani will now testify.

Mr Giuliani played a significant part in Mr Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including by repeating and amplifying his claims that the election was fraudulent.

One of the witnesses in the trial, Northwestern University professor Ashlee Humphreys, testified on Wednesday that Mr Giuliani's defamatory statements were seen up to 56 million times.

The judge in Ms Freeman's case has forbidden him from arguing the debunked election fraud claims in court. Outside the court, however, he has continued to claim that the baseless allegations he said about Ms Moss and Ms Freeman were true.

"When I testify, you'll get the whole story and it will be definitively clear what I said was true and that whatever happened to them, which was unfortunate if other people overreacted, but everything I said about them is true," he said on Monday. "Of course I don't regret it, I told the truth."

Mr Giuliani is facing separate charges in Georgia stemming from his part in an alleged conspiracy to overturn the election results alongside Mr Trump and others. He has pleaded not guilty.

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by Bernd Debusmann Jr | BBC News, Washington

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