In a surprise development, Rudy Giuliani will not testify, according to his lawyers.

The court is set to go straight into closing statements, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports from the courthouse in Washington DC.

[This was a new twist. Giuliani had claimed he would testify in his own defense in the civil defamation trial brought by two election workers from Georgia. He got himself in hot water Monday by “testifying” in a public statement that “everything I said about them was true,” which contradicts the stipulation Giuliani made in this trial that his comments were factually false. Judge Beryl Howell informed Giuliani that he had just opened himself up to a new defamation claim, and possibly fresh sanctions in this trial as well. That probably factored into the decision to stay off the stand. — Ed]