Welcome to the beat. I'm Melissa Murray in for Ari Melber. We begin tonight with a

reckoning for lies. This evening a DC federal jury issued a unanimous

verdict holding Rudy Giuliani accountable for defamation.

That's $148 million.

That's the amount of damages that a federal jury determined that Giuliani must pay

Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, the two Georgia election workers the After the verdict, Giuliani came out to the cameras.

Possibly will move for a new trial.

Certainly will appeal.

The absurdity of the number merely underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding.

The comments they received I had nothing to do with.

My comments had no connection at all to those.

There were thousands of things in the press about this, of which mine were a small amount.

You'll recall that back in August, the judge, Beryl Howell, issued a default judgment against

Giuliani based on his admissions and failure to

turn over evidence in the case.

Accordingly, the task for this jury was to simply put a number on the human toll

that Moss and Freeman suffered because of Giuliani's lies. toll that

most of Giuliani's lies.

Now, cameras are not allowed in federal court,

but we know what that toll looked like

because Moss and Freeman have indicated the injuries

that they suffered when they testified before the January 6th

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