Rudy Giuliani flakes out of defamation trial testimony at last minute

A spokesperson for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced on Thursday morning that he will not testify in the trial that will determine the damages he will pay to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia election workers whom he defamed in 2020.

As CNN reports, "the decision not to appear comes after the Georgia election workers – Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss – provided gut-wrenching testimony over the course of two days about how the lies spread by him damaged their reputations and upended their lives."

Giuliani's decision not to testify comes even after his lawyer "explicitly" told jurors that they would hear from him directly, notes NBC News' Ryan Reilly.

In the aftermath of former President Donald Trump's loss, Giuliani falsely accused the two election workers of "passing around USB ports as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine" in a supposed scheme to switch votes from Trump to President Joe Biden.

In fact, an investigation of video footage taken of the two women revealed that they were passing around ginger mints, not USB sticks.