But Giuliani isn't completely giving up his efforts to fight the lawsuit. One consultant, Ted Goodman, said his concessions and acknowledgments were an attempt to bypass the fact-finding phase and move on to legal arguments over whether he could be held liable for the damages sought by Moss and Freeman.
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani did not acknowledge that the statements were false, but did not dispute them in order to move forward with the portion of the case that allows for a motion to dismiss,” Goodman said. “This is a legal matter, not a factual matter. Those who seek to denigrate the mayor ignore the fact that this provision is intended to address the legal issues in the case.”
Still, it's a significant acknowledgment from the former president's lawyer, who spent months pointing to security footage of Moss and Freeman as evidence that thousands of ballots in Georgia were mishandled or sabotaged. Those claims were largely debunked by Georgia and federal investigators, but still found support among former President Donald Trump and others close to him. Moss and Freeman testified before the select committee on January 6 that both had faced significant threats and suffered loss of livelihood as a result of Trump and Giuliani's claims.
“Giuliani's determination confirms what we have always known to be true: Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss discharged their civic duties in the 2020 presidential election honorably and in full accordance with the law; and the election fraud allegations he and former President Trump made against them were false from day one,” said Michael J. Gottlieb, partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. “While certain issues, including damages, remain to be determined by the court, our clients are pleased with this important milestone in their fight for justice and look forward to presenting the remainder of this case in court.”
Giuliani's designation appears designed to head off further legal problems in the long-running legal battle that has led to the testimony of several high-ranking figures close to Trump, the disclosure of text messages, emails and transcripts of testimony, and the threat of significant fines.
Most recently, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who is presiding over the lawsuit, threatened severe sanctions against Giuliani over allegations that he failed to preserve extensive troves of evidence related to the matter. Giuliani's determination on the facts of the lawsuit came in response to an order from Howell demanding an explanation for his failure to produce certain batches of files and asking why she shouldn't simply rule in favor of Moss and Freeman.
Giuliani's attorney, Joseph Sibley, emphasized in an attached filing that Giuliani did not in fact “admit” to Moss and Freeman's allegations against him, but made the decision to no longer contest them, which he said undermined the women's efforts to provide additional physical evidence search should put an end – emails, text messages and other communications – from Giuliani.
Although the statement amounts to an admission of the facts, Sibley said Giuliani still maintains that he has legal defenses for the allegations and is asking Howell to rule exclusively on those legal issues now that the facts have largely been established.
In the statement signed Tuesday, Giuliani said he continued to stand by his legal argument that his comments about Moss and Freeman were “constitutionally protected statements or opinions.” But by admitting the facts, further efforts by Moss and Freeman to obtain documents and other factual evidence are no longer necessary, he says.
The statement comes as special counsel Jack Smith appears poised to indict Trump and possibly others over their efforts to undermine the 2020 election. Those efforts also include a hard-hitting look at efforts by Trump and his allies – including Giuliani – to make false claims about election fraud.
Giuliani has attended at least one tender meeting with Smith's investigators, and Smith has also scrutinized other people working with Giuliani in the election effort, including former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
Kerik, who was also pressured by Howell to provide more documents to Moss and Freeman in the lawsuit, announced this week that he had received permission from the Trump campaign to provide documents that he said were once obtained through the were protected by attorney-client privilege.
In the filing Tuesday night, Giuliani also strongly denied that he personally mishandled or destroyed the evidence Moss and Freeman were seeking. He submitted a statement from another lawyer, Robert Costello, in which he primarily blamed the Justice Department's 2021 seizure of his devices for returning them with corrupted files or, in some cases, erasing them entirely.
