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Giuliani's assault claim is hilariously silly, but the results it will have are anything but funny [1]

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Date: 2022-06-28 00:00:00

On Monday, Joan McCarter covered the events of the “assault” on Giuliani. And there really should be nothing to add. Because there was no assault. Five seconds spent viewing the video of the event reveals a man walking past, giving Giuliani an open-palmed pat on the back, and continuing across the floor of the ShopRite grocery where this astounding feat of strength allegedly occurred.

x Video of the “assault” on Rudy at ShopRite, where Rudy had the person arrested, and said if he wasn’t in better shape he would’ve fallen, cracked his skull, and died. pic.twitter.com/EpgSpPu2fk — Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) June 26, 2022

What really is astonishing isn’t this “attack.” It’s that the man, store employee Daniel Gill, was arrested, charged with felony assault, and held over 24 hours by the New York Police Department. Because apparently there aren’t enough Black men trying to sell individual cigarettes to take up their time.

However, well after everyone on the internet had seen the ridiculousness of this incident, New York prosecutors apparently found time to check out the actual evidence and reduced the charges against Gill … to merely third-degree assault, third-degree menacing, and second-degree harassment. Which is a lot of crime for an encounter lasting roughly one second.

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It’s obvious that Gill does touch Giuliani. But touch is very much the correct word. He gives the man who Donald Trump made the head of his legal team a lighter tap than the average shopper in that store received a dozen times on the street that morning. However, ridiculous as it was, this whole thing is extremely likely to cost Gill his job, or to leave him facing court encounters that go on for months. It’s also certain to leave him with a police record that will linger the rest of his life.

All of this for something so silly that Newsmax doesn’t buy it.

x "I gotta be honest, it doesn't look that bad" -- a Newsmax host to Rudy Giuliani on video of his "assault" pic.twitter.com/FsJ3xZggVc — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 28, 2022

Giuliani hasn’t even been able to keep straight on what Gill said in passing. At first it was a comment calling Giuliani a “scumbag” (completely believable), but now the claim seems to be something crediting Giuliani for the overturning of Roe v. Wade (much less so).

On the one hand, it would be terrific to see Gill actually go to court on this, because that would provide the opportunity to enter into evidence all the obvious, visible, and absolutely absurd lies Giuliani is putting out. It would be nice to think that someone out there might even think, “You know, if he’s lying this outrageously about something like this, then all that stuff he said about the election ...” But no. It seems unlikely that anyone who has bought into Trump’s Big Lie has that kind of rational thought. Also, Giuliani has already had his law license suspended and been fired by the last firm to which he belonged. His entire occupation is lying to Trump supporters.

It would also be nice to think that any reasonable jury wouldn’t even bother to leave the room before dismissing these charges. However, it would be completely understandable if Gill agreed to plead guilty to some minor charge.

Because that’s the way the system works: In one hand, prosecutors hold out a prospect of unending charges, police harassment, and the possibility that they might actually persuade a jury to go along with a charge that means jail time. In the other they present a “just plead to this and you can go home” deal. Left unmentioned is how this makes you a criminal for the rest of your life, and stands in the way of ever finding a job, ever renting an apartment, ever getting a home loan, or ever doing any of a thousand other things. It’s happened to tens of millions of people. It may also happen to Gill.

If Gill were a Republican who had been arrested for actually assaulting a Democratic leader, the obvious next step would be 24/7 cheering on Fox News, a whirlwind tour on the Republican rally circuit, and a successful run for Congress. But since it appears he was critical of Giuliani, expect him to show up in GOP ads this fall as just the kind of antifa/BLM/radical left menace who threatens to pat the back of all America should Republicans fail to capture both the House and Senate.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/6/28/2107020/-Rudy-Giuliani-is-so-ridiculous-but-his-lies-are-still-hurting-people

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