Legal dispute settled: Agreement at the last moment: Giuliani is allowed to keep apartments

Former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has settled a $148 million lawsuit and is now allowed to keep his real estate and other valuables. The agreement was preceded by days of dramatic negotiations between Giuliani’s lawyers and the representatives of the two plaintiffs, two election workers from the US state of Georgia, as US media reported. Another trial in the year-long legal dispute was actually supposed to start on Thursday (local time) in New York.

As part of the settlement, Giuliani would have to pay compensation to the two women, it said. The amount of this compensation was not initially public. The Trump confidant is accused of defaming election workers after the 2020 US presidential election.

According to US media, the 80-year-old was threatened with losing a property in Florida and another on New York’s Upper East Side. Valuables such as his watch collection, a Mercedes-Benz convertible and a jersey signed by US baseball player Joe DiMaggio were also at stake.

“I am satisfied with the result we have achieved,” Giuliani wrote on X about the agreement. He would be allowed to keep both of his properties, as well as all of his personal belongings. Giuliani did not admit any wrongdoing. “This legal dispute has demanded a lot from all parties.” According to Giuliani, he and the two plaintiffs also agreed never to speak about each other in a defamatory manner.

Giuliani had thrown the lives of election workers into chaos

At the end of 2023, Giuliani was sentenced to pay the two women – mother and daughter – $148 million (currently €144 million) in damages for defamation. Since he couldn’t raise the money, they were supposed to get, among other things, his New York luxury apartment.

The two women had worked as election workers in Georgia in 2020 – and after the election, Giuliani falsely claimed that helpers like them had thrown away ballot papers for Donald Trump and counted fake papers for the ultimately victorious Democrat Joe Biden. The two women were targeted by angry Trump supporters because they were seen on a video that was shared on the Internet.

“A nightmare come to life”

The agreement is a “milestone,” the New York Times quoted from a statement by the election workers. “The last four years have been a nightmare come to life. We have fought to clear our names, restore our reputations and prove we did nothing wrong.”