Adam Kinzinger Does Victory Lap After Rudy Giuliani's $148M Judgment

Former GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger took to social media on Friday to celebrate the $148 million ruling against Rudy Giuliani for defaming two Georgia election workers.

On Friday, a Washington, D.C., jury ordered Giuliani to pay the amount to the mother and daughter pair, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, who had brought a civil suit against the former New York City mayor for defamation. In his capacity as an attorney helping to push former President Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, Giuliani had singled out the two women and amplified baseless conspiracies alleging that they had committed voter fraud. The claims, the suit explained, had inundated Freeman and Moss with threats from Trump supporters, upending their lives and making them fear for their safety.

The total payment ordered by the jury breaks down as follows: between $16 and $17 million each to Freeman and Shaye in compensatory damages, $20 million each for the intentional infliction of emotional distress, and a further $75 million in punitive damages.

In response to the order, Kinzinger took to X, the platform previously known as Twitter, to celebrate the news. Having previously represented districts in Illinois from 2011 to 2023, Kinzinger emerged later in his House of Representatives tenure as a prominent GOP critic of Trump and his associates, in particular their false claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election. To that end, he was also among the two Republicans to serve on the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

"God bless the jury. Outstanding," Kinzinger wrote in a post responding to the news. "Rudy went from [America's] hero to a disgraced drunk."

Later, the former congressman also shared a GIF from the popular animated comedy series, Archer, in response to a breakdown of the payments ordered by the jury.

Newsweek reached out to representatives for Giuliani via email for comment.

While making final remarks to the D.C. jury ahead of their deliberation, Giuliani's attorney Joseph Sibley said earlier this week that the full amount being requested by Freeman and Moss' legal team would be financially ruinous for his client, given the amount he has already hemorrhaged in other legal battles.

"It would be the end of Mr. Giuliani," Sibley said, adding that the full amount being requested would effectively be the "civil equivalent of the death penalty."

In response to the jury's order, Giuliani, vowing to appeal the verdict, told reporters that he did not "regret a damn thing" and decried the "absurdity" of the full amount he had been ordered to pay.

Giuliani, however, did seemingly indicate he regretted at least one aspect of the case, answering "of course" after a reporter asked if he had "any regrets" about "the comments" Freeman and Moss received following his accusations.

He described the threats and harassment that the mother and daughter pair endured as "abominable" and "deplorable," while insisting he had "nothing to do with" it.