Rudy Giuliani holds up a watch that he has not yet turned over while appearing remotely by video link as his attorney Joseph Cammarata questions him, during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in his case over the handover of property to two Georgia election workers he was found to have defamed, in New York City, U.S., January 6, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.
NEW YORK--Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who served as Donald Trump's personal lawyer, agreed to stop defaming two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of helping steal the 2020 election as part of a legal settlement on Thursday that lets him keep his Florida condominium and Manhattan apartment.
The election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Moss, said they also were compensated as part of the settlement but did not offer specifics. They won a $148 million judgment after a judge ruled that Giuliani had defamed them by claiming they helped Democrat Joe Biden defeat the Republican Trump with illegal ballots. Trump returns to the presidency on Monday.
The settlement means Giuliani, 80, will no longer face a non-jury civil trial, which had been due to begin on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman, over whether he must turn over the Palm Beach condominium and three New York Yankees World Series baseball rings to Freeman and Moss.
Giuliani had already turned over some assets, including his apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side, to them to help pay off the judgment.In a statement read by his lawyer to reporters outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan, Giuliani said the settlement now lets him keep the Palm Beach condominium and Manhattan apartment.
"I and the plaintiffs have agreed not to ever talk about each other in any defamatory manner, and I urge others to do the same," according to Giuliani's statement, as read by his lawyer Joseph Cammarata.
Giuliani previously was held in contempt of court twice in his legal fight with Freeman and Moss.Giuliani had argued that he should have been allowed to keep the condominium because it was his permanent residence, and could not give up the rings because he gave them as gifts to his son Andrew. Under the settlement, Andrew Giuliani said he can keep the rings.
Freeman and Moss also issued a statement."We can now move forward with our lives," they said. "We have agreed to allow Mr. Giuliani to retain his property in exchange for compensation and his promise not to ever defame us."
In a 2021 lawsuit in Washington, Freeman and Moss accused Giuliani of harming their reputations by falsely claiming that surveillance video had showed them concealing and counting suitcases filled with illegal ballots at an Atlanta basketball arena where votes were processed to help Biden beat Trump.
In a joint letter informing Liman of the settlement, lawyers for both sides asked the judge to postpone the trial until at least Feb. 25 to give them time to "fully implement" the agreement. The trial was to have been held in the same district where the now-disbarred Giuliani served as the top federal prosecutor from 1983 to 1989.
Once praised for his response as mayor to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Giuliani's reputation is now in tatters.Giuliani has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in two states for trying to overturn Biden's victory over Trump.
On Jan. 6, Liman held Giuliani in contempt for failing to comply with court orders and obstructing efforts by Freeman and Moss to determine his primary residence. Four days later, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington found him in contempt again for continuing to defame the two women.
Howell found Giuliani liable for defamation as a sanction after he failed to turn over electronic records to Freeman and Moss. Jurors in Washington later found that he must pay Freeman and Moss $73 million in compensation and $75 million as punishment.
The women were trying to enforce the judgment in Manhattan while Giuliani appealed.
