Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Charges are set to be dismissed against the grocery-store worker who was accused of slappingRudy Guilianiin New York City three months ago.
Daniel Gill — who was arrested after allegedly assaulting Giuliani, 78, at a ShopRite on Staten Island on June 26 — will reportedly avoid both jail time and a criminal record thanks to a plea agreement.
According to multiple outlets includingSILive,The New York TimesandCNN, prosecutors on Wednesday reached the agreement, which says the 39-year-old will no longer have the incident on his record provided that he does not commit any crimes for the next six months.
Giuliani was also issued a six-month order of protection.
Gill was originally charged with assault with intent to cause physical injury, harassment in the second degree and menacing in the third degree after the incident.
On Thursday, Gill filed a notice of claim against the city for $2 million, telling theTimesthat the publicity surrounding the event resulted in his losing his job and “embarrassed him before friends and colleagues.”
Police said that Gills said to Giuliani “What’s up, scumbag?” before he made contact with Giuliani, per theTimes.
“All the sudden, I feel a shot on my back, like somebody shot me,” Giuliani, 78, later toldThe Curtis Sliwa Showof the alleged assault. “I went forward, but luckily I didn’t fall down,” he said, adding that if he were not in “pretty good shape,” he would have “hit the ground and probably crack my skull.”
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But the video, which showed the once-personal attorney for formerPresident Donald Trumpstumble slightly after Gills patted him on the back, seemingly contradicted Giuliani’s story.
In June, New York City Mayor Eric Adams raised the possibility of investigatingGiulianifor reporting a false crime. “I looked at the video, and someone needs to remind former Mayor Giuliani that falsely reporting a crime is a crime,” Adams told reporters at the time.
“There should never have been a criminal case,” Gill said on Thursday to theTimes. “All I did was express my First Amendment right. Obviously, violence of any sort should always be condemned. However, no violence was perpetrated against Mr. Giuliani.”
Giuliani was at the store campaigning for his son, Andrew, who was running for governor at the time.
Giuliani said in a Facebook Live following the altercation that Gills called him “dirty curse words” that he could not repeat (he told thePostGill called him “a f—ing scumbag”).
“Then he turned around and said that I was a woman killer. ‘You kill women. Your party kills women. You’re one of the people who kills women,’ " Giuliani said, hinting the man’s words were likely in reference to theSupreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “He might have made a reference to the word abortion in there, but mostly it was killing women.”
“He kept cursing and wouldn’t stop. He kept menacing and treating,” Giuliani added. “So I said, ‘Let’s get him arrested. Let’s make an example out of him.’ … This has to stop, this idea that you attack people.”
But Gills maintains that his interaction with Giuliani was regarding something else entirely.
“This was about him and his involvement perpetuating the myth that someone won the 2020 election when they didn’t,” Gills said. “I thought that we would exchange a few words and that will be the end of it.”
source: people.com
