Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, admitted in a court filing Tuesday that he made defamatory statements concerning two Georgia poll workers.
Fulton Country election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss sued Giuliani for defamation in December 2021. They claim the former New York City mayor falsely asserted that the pair committed election fraud to hurt Trump in Georgia in 2020.
In the new filing, Giuliani said one of the reasons for the stipulation was “to avoid unnecessary expenses in litigating what he believes to be unnecessary disputes.”
While Giuliani conceded he made defamatory and false statements, he did not admit those statements caused damage to the pair, and argued those concessions don’t prevent him from asserting constitutional speech protections.
“Defendant Giuliani, for the purposes of this litigation only, does not contest that, to the extent the statements were statements of fact and otherwise actionable, such actionable factual statements were false,” the filing said.
Giuliani was a key player in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. He spread baseless conspiracy theories on behalf of the then-president and helped lead efforts to challenge election results in key battleground states. Investigators with special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection have spoken with Giuliani, as well.
Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Giuliani, said the filing was an effort to move the case along.
“Mayor Rudy 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,” Goodman said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
Lawyers for Freeman and Moss haven’t commented on the filing as of Wednesday morning.
Last month, Giuliani was sanctioned by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell for failing to search for and produce documents requested by Freeman and Moss’ lawyers. He has also been ordered to pay the election workers’ attorney fees and costs related to the requests for those files.
The pair have also testified before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection about the detrimental effect the conspiracy theories about them had on their lives.