July 26 (UPI) — Rudy Giuliani ended his defense of statements targeting a pair of election workers over the 2020 presidential election in a move his advisers said was strategic in nature.
In a statement to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., filed Tuesday, Giuliani said he “does not contest” the statements he made while working as an attorney for former President Donald Trump that attacked Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were “false” and “carry meaning that is defamatory.”
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss had demanded emails and other communications from Giuliani in their lawsuit where he repeatedly claimed the two manipulated ballots in Georgia during the election, where President Joe Biden edged former President Donald Trump in the state.
His claims, which have been repeated by Trump, have been debunked by local and state officials in Georgia.
Freeman and Moss testified to a House committee investigating the January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol that Giuliani’s comments caused a fierce public backlash against them that turned their lives upside down.
Giuliani’s supporters, though, claimed that the filing was not a concession, but an effort to end document demands and get to the legal argument that his comments were protected constitutionally.
“Giuliani did not acknowledge that the statements were false but did not contest it in order to move on to the portion of the case that will permit a motion to dismiss,” Giuliani’s political adviser Ted Goodman said.
“This is a legal issue, not a factual issue. Those out to smear the mayor are ignoring the fact that this stipulation is designed to get to the legal issues of the case.”
U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell had been considering sanctions against Giuliani in the case for his failure to preserve evidence Freeman and Moss were seeking and order him to explain why he has not turned over the information.
