Former President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed he'd been "assaulted" at a grocery store but his story did not hold up once the store released security footage of the encounter.
A worker at a ShopRite store on Staten Island, New York was arrested after slapping Giuliani on the back and calling him a “scumbag” during a campaign event for his son Andrew, who launched a gubernatorial bid but has failed to secure the support of New York's Republican leadership.
The incident was initially reported as an assault but the security footage shows while Giuliani appeared surprised by the slap on the back, it did not leave him physically reeling as had been suggested by the former mayor.
You can watch the footage for yourself below.
Afterward, Giuliani told The Curtis Silwa Show, a program hosted by Republican activist Curtis Silwa, who was the Republican nominee for the 2021 New York City mayoral election, that he had felt "a shot on my back, like somebody shot me."
He added that he is grateful to be in "pretty good shape because if I wasn’t I’d’ve hit the ground and probably cracked my skull.” He went further during an interview with The New York Times, saying that he had red marks on his back after the incident and that he felt fortunate that he was still capable of walking.
The man in question, a 39-year-old, has been charged with second-degree assault, a charge that carries a sentence of at least two years in federal prison.
But the footage itself immediately cast doubt on Giuliani's version of events, and he was immediately criticized for lying and exaggerating about the severity of the encounter.
ShopRite said in a statement that it was aware of the incident and that the company had “zero tolerance for aggression toward anyone.”
Giuliani suggested in his interview to The New York Times that the worker had told him that he is "going to kill women," a statement he says might have been a response to the Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that once protected a person's right to choose reproductive healthcare without excessive government restriction.
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