Georgia election worker feared for her life after Rudy Giuliani's election fraud claims

A former Georgia poll worker suing Rudy Giuliani for defamation has told jurors how his lies about the 2020 election turned her life upside down.

"I want to receive some type of justice," Wandrea "Shaye" Moss said.

She and her mother, Ruby Freeman, have sued him over his false claims that they had tampered with votes, which led to a barrage of violent threats.

"I'm like a hermit crab now," she said on Tuesday, ABC News reported. "I don't trust anyone."

The judge in the case has already ruled Mr Giuliani is liable for defamation. The jury in this trial, which began on Monday, must decide how much to award the pair.

They are seeking between $15m and $43m (£11.9m to £34m), which the former mayor of New York cannot afford, according to his lawyers.

In a federal courtroom in Washington, Ms Moss took the stand for several hours on Tuesday to testify about the fallout of Mr Giuliani's claims.

She said after the election, her life became a cycle of "Cry, eat, sleep. Cry, eat, sleep."

An expert witness, former Chicago police officer Regina Scott, testified that the women, who are black, had been inundated with "racist and graphic material" online.

As a lawyer to Donald Trump, Mr Giuliani played a central role in the former president's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and amplified Mr Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He has also been charged in a separate election interference case brought by Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia.

In 2020, Mr Giuliani singled out Ms Freeman and Ms Moss and accused them of tampering with votes at the Georgia polling location where they worked.

He claimed a video showed them passing a USB drive like "vials of cocaine or heroin" when, in reality, they were exchanging a mint.

Georgia election officials debunked his accusations and other falsehoods about election fraud, and recounts affirmed that Mr Biden won the state.

The women, who testified last year in televised congressional hearings on the Jan. 6 attacks, say they were deluged with threats that upended their lives.

Through, at times, tearful testimony, Ms Moss told the jury that the harassment hurt every aspect of her life: her mental and physical health, her job, and her appearance. She eventually was diagnosed with acute stress disorder and major depressive disorder, and frequently suffered panic attacks, the Washington Post reported.

During a cross examination by one of Mr Giuliani's lawyers, she revealed she paid a digital security firm $140 (£111) each month to monitor mentions of her name for potential threats and falsehoods.

The lies and attacks also harmed her 16-year-old son, who used her old phone and received some of the threats and racist messages sent to her, she said.

"Racism is real. And it comes out," Ms Moss said she told her child. "I felt like the worst mom ever to allow him to have to hear this, to experience this day after day after day."

She added that she fears he will come home one day to find she or her mother have been hanged.

One of the women's attorneys displayed hateful online comments directed at them. One read, "Be glad it's 2020 and not 1920" - likely referring to period of history that saw systemic discrimination and violence against African Americans.

The message made Ms Moss "afraid for my life" and prompted her to change her hair and appearance, ABC News reported.

"Things ain't never returned to normal," she said.

In July, Mr Giuliani conceded that he made defamatory statements about the women. He said, though, that his comments about the 2020 election were protected as free speech and that his statements did not cause damage.

Judge Beryl Howell, though, ruled against Mr Giuliani in August, after he failed to provide information demanded by subpoenas.

Mr Giuliani repeated the lies that have put millions of his dollars on the line while speaking to reporters outside the courthouse on Monday, saying: "I told the truth. They were engaged in changing votes."

Judge Howell on Tuesday rebuked him, saying that his comments "could support another defamation claim".

In his opening statement on Monday, Von DuBose, an attorney for Ms Freeman and Ms Moss, played messages that his clients received after the presidential election.

"Have a nice life. What's left of it," a person said in one recording.

It was among "hundreds and hundreds of messages" sent to the women, Mr DuBose said.

Joseph Sibley, an attorney for Mr Giuliani, said on Monday the plaintiffs were "trying to end Mr. Giuliani".

Mr Giuliani's legal bills have been quickly mounting since the 2020 election and his lawyers say he cannot afford the damages being sought.