agree, Rudy was just a bit over the top in his description, but that’s all.
Should anyone be interested, Rudy’s court filing is here:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.238720/gov.uscourts.dcd.238720.84.2.pdf
It’s two pages long.
It looks to me as though he is arguing that—despite his statements being untrue—the statements didn’t harm anyone and are therefore NOT defamation but “protected speech.”