Donald Trump said he plans to award Rudy Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, following the former New York City mayor’s hospitalization from a weekend car wreck.
The president’s former attorney, who launched a spurious legal effort to keep Trump in office in 2020, has spent the last several years combating a defamation lawsuit and criminal charges connected to his campaign to overturn election results in states the president lost.
The former mayor, 81, suffered a fractured thoracic vertebrae, multiple lacerations and other injuries after a 19-year-old driver smashed into his car in New Hampshire on August 30.
He was released from a hospital in New Hampshire on Monday afternoon.
“As President of the United States of America, I am pleased to announce that Rudy Giuliani, the greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, and an equally great American Patriot, will receive THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM, our Country’s highest civilian honor,” Trump announced on his Truth Social Monday.
“Details as to time and place to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he wrote.
The president did not mention the wreck.
Giuliani’s security chief Michael Ragusa told The Independent on Monday that “a little car accident won’t be slowing him down.”
“He is eager to return to business and continue fighting for this country, as he has proudly done for the past 50 years,” Ragusa said.
His spokesperson Ted Goodman was driving a Ford Bronco on Interstate 93 when a 19-year-old driver in a Honda HR-V rear-ended their vehicle, according to police.
Before the crash, Giuliani’s car had stopped on the side of the highway to help what Ragusa described as “the victim of a domestic violence incident.”
According to Ragusa, Giuliani “immediately rendered assistance” and called 911, and they waited for police to arrive. When the car pulled back on to the highway, Giuliani’s car was “struck from behind at high speed,” Ragusa said.
Ragusa has clarified that the car crash was not a targeted attack.
Giuliani’s years-long legal battles in the chaotic aftermath of the 2020 election culminated in a surprise settlement with two election workers who sued him for defamation after he repeatedly falsely accused them of manipulating election results, which fueled a wave of harassment and abuse directed at the women.
He filed for bankruptcy in 2023 shortly after a jury awarded the women nearly $148 million in damages. His bankruptcy case was ultimately dismissed, triggering a multi-party legal battle across several courtrooms to seize control of his properties and assets.
After an abrupt settlement agreement in January, his lawyers said he “fully” paid the $148 million he owed the women he defamed, bringing an end to a legal saga that played out in courtrooms in Washington, D.C. and New York.
Giuliani became a national hero in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks in New York City, where he served as mayor from 1994 through 2001.
While serving as a key legal adviser to the president, the former federal prosecutor once hailed as “America’s Mayor’ in 9/11’s aftermath faced disbarment in several jurisdictions as well as criminal indictments in Arizona and Georgia. Those criminal cases are ongoing.
Trump gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 24 people during his first term in office, including posthumous honors to Elvis Presley, Babe Ruth and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
He also honored right-wing radio personality Rush Limbaugh with the award one year before his death, and gave the award to other major Republican figures including GOP mega donor and multi-billionaire Miriam Adelson and congressional allies Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan.
“There is no American more deserving of this honor,” Giuliani’s spokesperson Ted Goodman said in a statement.
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani took down the Mafia, saved New York City, comforted the nation following 9/11, and served in countless other ways to improve the lives of others,” he added. “Thank you, President Trump, for honoring his life and legacy.”
