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Charges Against The Man Who ‘Attacked’ (I.e., Lightly Slapped) Rudy Giuliani Have Been Downgraded (Because It Was Just A Slap On The Back)

On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani added yet another creatively bizarre blunder to an already endless list of them: He claimed he’d been “attacked” when he was actually just slapped on the back. An employee at a Staten Island ShopRite was arrested after lightly accosting the former “America’s mayor,” now an agent of weird chaos. Giuliani claimed the man, James Gill, “hit me to knock me down.” Video footage, however, showed otherwise. And now the charges against Gill have been all but inevitably downgraded.

The footage, obtained from a surveillance camera, shows Gill giving Giuliani what looks like a light slap. Giuliani doesn’t even move. But Giuliani has been effusive about how the slap put his life at risk. “I got hit on the back as if a boulder hit me,” he’s claimed. “It hurt tremendously. I did not know what it was. I had no idea what it was.” But if he really did fear for his life, that’s not remotely evident from the footage.

Gill’s lawyer, Susan Platis, told a judge that the “assault” “appears to be a tap on the back.” She also said the only thing close to a real threat came when someone with Giuliani followed Gill into the parking lot, poked him in the chest, and threatened him. She also pointed out the video isn’t exactly helpful for Giuliani.

“I think it actually shows a tap on the back, which is not criminal conduct,” Platis told the court. “There’s no intent here to harm anyone. [Giuliani] may have been surprised and stunned being touched in the back … but he’s a public figure, Your Honor. Being spoken to and things being said to him should be of no surprise and should be anticipated.”

After delivering the most famous slap since the Will Smith Oscars incident, Gill turned to Giuliani and allegedly said, “What’s up, scumbag?” He was angry over the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which happened thanks in large part to Giuliani’s old client, former president Donald Trump, for whom he not only repeatedly embarrassed himself in public but also accrued pricey lawsuits. Trump has not helped him out, which may be why he delivered a very unwelcome appearance on The Masked Singer.

(Via New York Daily News)