US President Donald Trump says he’s awarding former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom, announcing the honour two days after his political ally was badly injured in a traffic accident.
Trump in a statement on social media called Giuliani, who was heralded for his leadership following the September 11, 2001, attacks but has sometimes drawn controversy for his defence of Trump, the “greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, and an equally great American Patriot.”
Giuliani is recovering from a fractured vertebra and other injuries following a car crash in New Hampshire in which he was a passenger, a spokesperson for the mayor said Sunday.
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Giuliani was being driven in a rented Ford Bronco by his spokesperson Ted Goodman when their vehicle was struck from behind by a Honda HR-V driven by a 19-year-old woman late Saturday evening, New Hampshire State Police said in a statement.
Giuliani was disbarred as an attorney in New York and Washington after he was found to have repeatedly made false statements about Trump’s 2020 election loss.
He was criminally charged in Georgia and Arizona over his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election but denied the allegations.
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Former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss won a US$148 million ($225.8 million) defamation judgment against Giuliani for his false ballot fraud claims against them related to the 2020 election.
Freeman and Moss said Giuliani pushed Trump’s lies about the election being stolen, which led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.
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