Giuliani defamation trial live updates: Jury reaches decision, announcement upcoming

The jury is continuing its deliberations over the amount of damages Rudy Giuliani will have to pay for his defamatory statements targeting Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.

The eight jury members have been deliberating since this morning with no questions for the judge and no indication of their progress.

During their first day of deliberations yesterday, jury members asked Judge Beryl Howell for the full report compiled by expert witness Dr. Ashlee Humphreys on the reach of Giuliani’s defamatory statements, but the judge declined the request because the complete report had not been entered into evidence.

Jurors are commonly tasked with a binary decision: guilt or innocence. But because Giuliani has already been found liable for defaming Freeman and Moss, jurors are left to determine the full scope of damages — in essence, to put a dollar figure on the cost of Giuliani’s lies.

In requesting awards of $24 million for each of the two women, attorneys for the plaintiffs asked the jury in Thursday’s closing arguments to compensate them for some practical costs like lost wages and a security system Freeman installed at her house. But jurors must also grapple with more abstract concepts like the women’s emotional distress and potential punitive measures for Giuliani.

An attorney for Giuliani urged jurors to hew their final decision closer to the practical costs, which account for only part of the tens of millions of dollars sought by the plaintiffs.

Judge Howell is expected to allow deliberations to continue until 5 p.m. ET. If they fail to reach agreement by then, she will likely summon them back next week.