By Katelyn Polantz and Shawna Mizelle | CNN
Rudy Giuliani concedes he made defamatory statements about Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in an effort to resolve their lawsuit against him and to satisfy a judge who has considered sanctioning him.
The late-night Tuesday filing from Giuliani says he doesn’t contest Moss and Freeman’s accusations that he smeared them after the 2020 election. Yet the filing says he still wants to be able to argue that his statements about voter fraud in Georgia in the 2020 election were protected speech. Notably, he also refuses to concede that his statements caused damages to Moss or Freeman.
The new filing doesn’t immediately resolve the case against Giuliani, which had taken a thorny turn for the former prosecutor and New York City mayor after a judge cautioned him earlier this month that he could lose the lawsuit or face severe sanctions for not gathering his own records in a thorough way and turning them over to Moss and Freeman’s team as they move through the case.
The federal judge, Beryl A. Howell of the DC District Court, must still look at Giuliani’s filings from Tuesday, which also try to provide explanations for why he didn’t search his records more thoroughly.
It’s also not clear how criminal prosecutors from the Justice Department’s special counsel’s office, who have interviewed Giuliani, will perceive the unusual move Giuliani is making in the lawsuit.
Lawyers for Moss and Freeman are set to respond next week in court to Giuliani’s latest statements, though their lead attorney on Wednesday morning called Giuliani’s concessions a “major milestone” in the case.
“Giuliani’s stipulation concedes what we have always known to be true—Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss honorably performed their civic duties in the 2020 presidential election in full compliance with the law; and the allegations of election fraud he and former-President Trump made against them have been false since…
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