Trump says he’s awarding Rudy Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom days after former mayor’s car crash

Donald Trump says 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 after a car wreck over the Labor Day weekend.

The president’s former attorney, who launched a spurious legal effort to keep Trump in office in 2020, has spent the last several years combatting 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 on Monday.

“Details as to time and place to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he wrote.

Giuliani’s security chief Michael Ragusa told The Independent 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.

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 effort across several court rooms 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 mulit-billionaire Miriam Adelson and congressional allies Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan.

This is a developing story