Rudy Giuliani, 79, arrives in court as jury deliberates on if he'll pay $48M in damages to Georgia election workers he defamed: 'America's Mayor' faces financial ruin after lawyers said damages would be a 'death penalty'

Rudy Giuliani could face even deeper financial disaster today as a Washington D.C. jury deliberates on how much he will have to pay Georgia election workers he defamed.

The 79-year-old arrived in court on Friday to wait to hear how much in damages he will have to fork over to the staffers who accused him of making their lives hell with his constant claims of election fraud.

The panel is considering damages of up to $48 million for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who 'America's Mayor' repeatedly claimed manipulated ballots and helped steal the election.

The jury began discussions late Thursday and are set to begin again on Friday after Giuliani's lawyer Joe Sibley compared  him to a 'flat-earther' who will 'never stop believing election lies' and blamed his age, 79, for some of his conduct.

His legal team have said it would be a 'death penalty' if he is forced to hand over the enormous sum. 

Giuliani has faced a mountain of financial difficulties defending multiple lawsuits and was forced to put his Manhattan co-op up for sale for $6.5 million

The plaintiffs' lawyer Michael Gottlieb asked the jury to 'send a message' by slapping the former New York mayor with a hefty financial judgement.

Their legal team brought an expert witness, Ashlee Humphreys of Northwestern University, who said they should get $18 million to $48 million to compensate for the loss to their reputations, which came after Giuliani repeatedly invoked them while acting as a key figure in Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election result.

In court this week, Humphreys said there was a massive burst in online misinformation about them after Giuliani and former President Donald Trump accused them of manipulating the vote count.

She said she had been subjected to hundreds of racist messages and threats, including messages saying 'we know where you sleep' and telling her 'you are dead.'

The judge overseeing the case had already issued a default judgement against him, to the trial was mainly a matter of reaching an assessment on damages Giuliani must pay. 

It resulted in 33 million online impressions of Freeman, who Trump called a 'professional vote scammer' in his call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – in an episode that features in a separate criminal trial in Georgia.

There had been an expectation that Giuliani would appear in his own defense. But after saying Wednesday that he intended to do so, his lawyer ultimately did not call him. 

It came after a trial where Giuliani's lawyer had to contend with a difficult set of facts and voluble client.

On Wednesday U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell cautioned Giuliani for appearing on a podcast where he where he called the case a 'political hit job' and attacked the integrity of the gaggle of lawyers arrayed against him.

He had said 'there might be a few questions about exactly how political is this' and mentioned money 'coming from different directions.'

After getting admonished directly, Giuliani responded to the judge that 'I thought I could make comments about counsel,' but pledged not to do so in the future. 

The judge wasn't buying it and said so. 'There's a lot of accidents going on here Mr. Giuliani,' she said.

The verdict comes as Giuliani faces criminal liability after being charged as part of a conspiracy to overturn the election on behalf of Trump in that state. He has pleaded not guilty to charges against him.

Giuliani had claimed Moss and Freeman pulled 'suitcases' full of ballots during the count at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, and claimed they inserted a USB drive into voting machines. But the Georgia Secretary of State's investigation found the claims circulating against them online 'have no merit.'