An attorney for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, had urged the eight-person jury to “send a message” with its verdict.
Rudy Giuliani should pay a pair of Georgia election workers he repeatedly and falsely accused of fraud $148 million in damages, a federal jury said Friday.
The eight-person jury awarded Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, the sum after a four-day trial, during which they testified that Giuliani’s lies in support of former President Donald Trump’s bogus stolen-election claims subjected them to a torrent of racist and violent threats and turned their lives upside down.
Freeman testified Wednesday that she was terrorized by Trump supporters and forced to move from her home because of Giuliani’s smears. “I was scared to come home at dark, you know,” a visibly emotional Freeman said on the witness stand. “I was just scared, I knew I had to move.”
No you misunderstand, his nonprofit foundation was selling his manhattan apartment for 6.1m. He controls the foundation but that money can’t be taken away.
I haven’t actually looked it up to see if he even owned the apartment he lived in, but there are many ways to shelter controlled assets in ways that minimize liability and tax burdens on the person who controls them. These mechanisms are a big part of the reason why rich people don’t pay taxes. Instead they donate their earnings or claim losses on stock transactions.
If you donate a million dollars of your assets to your foundation while simultaneously earning a million dollars in cash from business dealings- how much tax do you pay? $0. Million in pocket, million dollar asset sheltered and still in your control. Your foundation control can be passed from generation to generation…
Keep in mind his foundation can “employ” him and provide lodgings to him and other reasonable expenses (e.g. food, travel, lodging… you know… the things we all toil away to earn money and pay 30%+ taxes for.)
I hear about bad faith charities and foundations all of the time. It’s insane that this is just accepted and unchallenged.
Lawmakers aren’t going to close that loophole because they all do it themselves.
