Giuliani gets to keep property, agrees not to defame Georgia election workers

NEW YORK - Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who served as Donald Trump's personal lawyer, agreed not to defame 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.

That judge, Beryl Howell of U.S. District Court in Washington, found Giuliani in contempt of court last week for defaming Freeman and Moss again, the second time he has been held in contempt in his legal fight with the two workers.

In a statement, Giuliani said he did not admit liability or wrongdoing as part of the agreement. Giuliani's statement did not mention compensation, and his lawyer did not immediately respond to a request to comment on Freeman and Moss' assertion that they had been compensated. Giuliani declared bankruptcy last year after the $148 million judgment, and after a November court hearing told reporters, "I have no cash."

The settlement means Giuliani, 80, will no longer face a trial to determine 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 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.

'MOVE FORWARD WITH OUR LIVES'

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.

The trial was to have been held before U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan, 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, Howell found him in contempt in Washington for continuing to defame the two women.

Howell previously 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.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Will Dunham and Daniel Wallis)