The complaint charging Mr. Gill says he hit Mr. Giuliani so hard that the blow resulted in “substantial pain to the back and left side of his body” and caused Mr. Giuliani to stumble forward.
But footage of the episode, which was obtained and published by The New York Post, appears to show Mr. Gill patting, rather than hitting, Mr. Giuliani on his back near his left shoulder while walking past him. The video, which does not contain audio, also appears to show Mr. Giuliani leaning forward slightly after Mr. Gill touched his back.
It was unclear on Monday what prompted Mr. Gill’s action, and he could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Giuliani claimed during an online news conference on Monday that the incident was connected to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last week. (He had said on Sunday that Mr. Gill said to him, “You’re going to kill women.”)
Mr. Giuliani, 78, fumed during the news conference about the lowering of the charges, saying, “What the hell is this D.A. doing letting him out of jail.” He claimed the video footage was “deceptive because it just shows the hand on my back.”
“I didn’t fall down,” Mr. Giuliani said. “I could have. If I fell down, who knows.”
“This little punk isn’t going to hurt me,” he added. “The Mafia threatened to kill me twice.”
The Legal Aid Society, which represents Mr. Gill, said in a statement on Monday that the charges against him were “inconsistent with existing law.”
“Our client merely patted Mr. Giuliani, who sustained nothing remotely resembling physical injuries, without malice to simply get his attention, as the video footage clearly showed,” the statement continued.
Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.
