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Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss told Congress last year they received threats over the baseless claims.

A group of major automakers on Wednesday said they were forming a new company to provide electric vehicle

Rudy Giuliani will not contest claims from two Georgia election workers who have accused the former attorney to Donald Trump of smearing them with false and defamatory statements surrounding the 2020 presidential election. A late-night federal court filing from Mr Giuliani’s attorneys on 25 July states that he “concedes solely for the purposes of this litigation” that he made false statements about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss that “carry meaning that is defamatory”. He also conceded that his statements meet the “factual elements of liability” for their claims that amounted to “intentional infliction of emotional distress”. The two women were subject to relentless abuse fuelled by false claims that they manipulated votes, damage that Mr Giuliani has refused to concede stemmed from his statements. “Giuliani’s stipulation concedes what we have always known to be true,” attorney Michael J Gottlieb Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP said in a statement. “Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss honorably performed their civic duties in the 2020 presidential election in full compliance with the law; and the allegations of election fraud he and former-President Trump made against them have been false since day one.” “While certain issues, including damages, remain to be decided by the court, our clients are pleased with this major milestone in their fight for justice, and look forward to presenting what remains of this case at trial,” he added. The two-page filing from Mr Giuliani’s attorneys indicates he will continue to argue that spurious claims about voter fraud in the state were protected speech. A spokesperson for the former New York City mayor indicated that the concession was in an effort to bypass a fact-finding portion of the case, which would involve the public disclosures of emails, text messages and other communications involving his claims. US District Court Judge Beryl Howell had threatened Mr Giuliani with sanctions and put him on the hook for $90,000 in legal fees following claims that he failed to preserve evidence related to the case. His latest filing came as a response to an order from the judge demanding an explanation. Ted Goodman, political adviser to Mr Giuliani, said in a statement shared with The Independent that he “did not acknowledge that the statements were false but did not contest it in order to move on to the portion of the case that will permit a motion to dismiss.” “This is a legal issue, not a factual issue. Those out to smear the mayor are ignoring the fact that this stipulation is designed to get to the legal issues of the case,” he added. In their testimony to the House select committee investigating the events surrounding the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Ms Freeman and Ms Moss revealed the depth of abuse they endured, forcing them from their jobs and making them feel unsafe after the former president and Mr Giuliani promoted debunked conspiracy theories involving them. They later filed a defamation suit against Mr Giuliani as well as right-wing outlet One American News Network, which settled with the women last year. A report from Georgia’s State Election Board following a year-long investigation also dismissed bogus claims of election fraud and cleared the allegations against the women. The fraud claims were “unsubstantiated and found to have no merit,” the investigation concluded, reporting on the work of the FBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations and investigators from the Secretary of State’s office vetting the alleged fraud Earlier this month, Bernie Kerik – a former New York City Police Department commissioner who worked with Mr Giuliani to support bogus voter fraud claims – was directed by the judge to provide “a document-by-document privilege log of any withheld record that provides sufficient information to ‘enable other parties to assess the claim’ that ‘the information is privileged or subject to protection as trial preparation material.’” He also was ordered to show why those records and other statements should be withheld. But a joint filing on 24 July from attorneys for Mr Kerik and the two election workers reveals that the parties reached an agreement to receive those documents – which were also sought in the unrelated federal investigation surrounding Mr Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. The former president’s campaign withdrew its claim of privilege over those documents, and Mr Kerik’s legal team has handed over thousands of documents to prosecutors investigating the former president’s mindset and decision making as he baselessly stated that the 2020 election was “stolen” and “rigged” against him despite a lack of evidence. Read More Giuliani team that tried to find evidence of 2020 fraud hands over hundreds of documents to January 6 probe Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained Trump news – live: Trump begs Congress to help save him from legal troubles as Jan 6 indictment decision looms All the lawsuits and criminal charges involving Trump and where they stand

Donald Trump signaled his claims about the 2020 presidential election being rigged against him will feature prominently in

Rudy Giuliani says a court filing that he's not disputing that he made public comments about two Georgia election workers that were false

Rudy Giuliani concedes he made defamatory statements about Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in an effort to resolve their lawsuit against him and to satisfy a judge who has considered sanctioning him.

Donald Trump is leading the field to become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee once again in 2024, his supporters apparently undeterred by his mounting legal problems – or the 24-hour circus of his first-term – and keen to give him another shot at the White House, such is their animosity to incumbent Joe Biden. None of Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Tim Scott or any of the other GOP stragglers are polling close to the former commander-in-chief as of summer 2023, despite the fact that Mr Trump has already been indicted twice this year and is staring down the barrel of a potential third and fourth. Having already stepped out to appeal not guilty at two arraignment hearings in New York and Miami over the alleged misrepresentation of his business records to conceal hush money payments and the alleged hoarding of classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago bathroom, the former reality TV star could now face charges over his role in inciting the Capitol riot of 6 January 2021 and, potentially, for attempting to influence the 2020 vote count in Georgia by pressuring state officials. None of which appears to discourage his loyal fanbase, who have been prepared to overlook the myriad disappointments of Mr Trump’s first tenure in the Oval Office, his historic double impeachment and his disastrous midterms picks last November to cheer him on at rallies, splash out on merchandise and generously donate to his campaign. While more traditional conservatives are ready to move on, the MAGA movement remains significant and its members are all too ready to cheerily swallow their idol’s baseless claims that the Biden administration has “weaponised” the US justice system against an innocent man in order to thwart the “American comeback” he has promised. Just in case you feel tempted to look back on the years 2017 to 2021 through rose-tinted spectacles, here is a refresher on precisely what happened during that angry whirlwind of a presidency, which began with government-by-Twitter and ended with the unprecedented and disgraceful spectacle of a president impeached not once but twice. House speaker Nancy Pelosi first announced she was launching an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump on 24 September 2019 in response to a complaint raised against him by an anonymous CIA whistleblower. The issue related to a call the 45th US president had placed with Ukraine’s new president Volodymyr Zelensky (a great deal more famous now than he was then) on 25 July that year, in which the American appeared to proposition his counterpart in Eastern Europe with a quid pro quo. Mr Trump hinted that $400m in congressionally-approved US military aid to Kyiv to help fend off Russian aggression in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine would be withheld unless Mr Zelensky’s government launched a politically embarrassing anti-corruption probe into Mr Trump’s own domestic rival, one Joseph R Biden, who was then leading the Democratic field to challenge him in 2020. “I would like you to do us a favour though…” was how the president introduced his condition on the call, pressuring Mr Zelensky to pursue a conspiracy theory alleging that Mr Biden, while serving as US vice president to Barack Obama, had sought the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating a local gas company, Burisma, on whose board his troubled son Hunter Biden sat, a matter already pursued by Mr Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Following Ms Pelosi’s bombshell announcement, the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees began interviewing State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council (NSC) officials behind closed doors throughout October, peacing the truth together from their depositions before summoning several back to testify in public across a series of dramatic mid-November hearings. The inquiry’s public phase introduced a memorable cast of characters, including former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, Ukraine charge d’affaires Bill Taylor, displaced Durhamite and Russia expert Dr Fiona Hill, the nattily bowtied George Kent, vice presidential aide Jennifer Williams, decorated NSC director Lt Col Alexander Vindman in full dress uniform and ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, a smirking ex-hotelier who had donated $1m to the Trump campaign for the privilege of ending up in the mess. By and large, the witnesses proved themselves to be impressive and principled experts in their fields and made fools of the MAGA Republicans attempting to pick holes in their testimony – Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Doug Collins, Elise Stefanik and Louie Gohmert among them. Mr Trump, predictably, spent his time denouncing the proceedings on Twitter as a “scam” and a second “witch hunt” following on from Robert Mueller’s investigation of his alleged ties to Russia, even engaging in some live witness intimidation when he tweeted nastily about Ms Yovanovitch as she gave evidence. The House went on to formally accuse the president on two counts, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, on 10 December. Eight days later, representatives backed both articles, casting their votes largely along party lines and pushing the matter forward to a trial in the Republican-held Senate. The Democrats, led by California congressman Adam Schiff, made their case admirably but, in the end, only Mitt Romney dared to break ranks and vote for Mr Trump’s conviction in the upper chamber, despite some heavy signalling from “rebel” GOP senators Lamar Alexander, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins that they might join him, before hopelessly bottling it. Impeached but not convicted, Mr Trump was free to carry on regardless. Ms Collins’ excuse that she believed he had “learned his lesson” from the Zelensky affair would later prove to be an even more laughable contention than it had sounded when she first uttered it. The other side of his disastrous mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, a summer of Black Lives Matter demonstrations over the police murder of George Floyd and his comprehensive defeat in the 2020 presidential election to Mr Biden, Mr Trump was impeached for a history-making second time on 13 January 2021 when the House found that he had incited the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol a week earlier by leading his disappointed supporters on with the “Big Lie” that only (non-existent) mass voter fraud had stopped him securing a second term. The tragic events of 6 January – on which a mob of QAnon zealots, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers stormed the legislative complex to try to stop the certification of the election results, five people were killed, a gallows was erected to hang Mr Pence and Congress was attacked for the first time since it was set alight by British soldiers in 1814 – are well documented. In its aftermath, Mr Trump, who declined to call off his supporters, preferring instead to watch the “American carnage” he had predicted at his inauguration finally unfold on live TV, was booted off social media and the House moved quickly to impeach him for an unheard-of second time, passing an article accusing him of incitement to insurrection. Speaker Pelosi said as she cast her vote to impeach that the president represented “a clear and present danger” so long as he remained in the Oval Office and accused him of trying to “repeal reality” in challenging the election result. The vote passed 232-197 in the lower chamber but, again, the Senate granted him an acquittal on 13 February, with only seven Republicans crossing the aisle to join the 50 Democrats in demanding accountability – not enough to land the two-thirds majority needed. Had just 10 more listened to their consciences and joined the rebellion, the US Constitution would have barred Mr Trump from ever running for high office again, ruling as it does that “judgement in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honour, trust or profit under the United States”. Twice impeached but convicted on neither occasion, Mr Trump was entirely free to announce a fresh bid for the White House, as he did last November, seemingly as untroubled by burning shame as ever. Read More Trump news – live: Georgia grand jury could weigh conspiracy charge as ex-NYPD boss hands docs to Jan 6 probe Mark Meadows laughed off Trump’s claims of election fraud in text to White House attorney, says report Unanswered questions about Trump’s looming January 6 indictment What is an indictment? Donald Trump facing third of 2023 over Capitol riot Donald Trump is the first former president arrested on federal charges. Can he still run in 2024?

By Bianca Flowers CHICAGO U.S. equipment makers are likely to face excess inventory early next year as demand

Cambodia’s Hun Sen will step aside as prime minister after nearly four decades in the power, leaving his

The strongman ruler's move comes days after his ruling party consolidated power at an election.

Provides an overview of Japan, including key dates and facts about this East Asian country.

By Nick Carey LONDON Porsche has a plan to gradually electrify its car lineup so that electric vehicles