Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani conceded late Tuesday that he made defamatory statements about two Georgia election workers as he tries to resolve litigation over the matter.

He said in a two-page filing that he does not contest that his words against Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss carried “meaning that is defamatory.”

Mr. Giuliani, a lawyer, was at the heart of former President Donald Trump’s effort to find fraud in the 2020 election results and overturn the results.

The Georgia election workers told the House select committee on the Jan. 6 attack that Mr. Giuliani’s claims that they mishandled ballots led to a flood of abuse and threats.

The new filing from Mr. Giuliani’s team seems aimed at heading off future legal headaches.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell had been pressing Mr. Giuliani to turn over more documents related to the case or risk an adverse ruling in favor of the women, so the stipulation may take some pressure off of Mr. Giuliani.

As the litigation proceeds, the filing says Mr. Giuliani reserves the right to defend his comments about fraud in the 2020 election as constitutionally protected, and he did not concede that his words caused actual damages to Ms. Moss or Ms. Freeman.

An aide to Mr. Giuliani, Ted Goodman, told CNN the stipulation is limited in scope.

“Mayor Rudy Giuliani 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,” Mr. Goodman said. “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.”

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.