Rudy Giuliani is on the mend from a fractured vertebra and other injuries after a car accident in New Hampshire, as reported by a spokesperson for the former New York City mayor on Sunday.
According to a statement on X by Michael Ragusa, Giuliani’s head of security, his vehicle was rear-ended while driving on a highway Saturday evening.
“He sustained injuries but is in good spirits and recovering tremendously,” Ragusa said, adding: “This was not a targeted attack.”
Giuliani, aged 81, was taken to a local trauma center where he was treated for injuries including “a fractured thoracic vertebrae, several cuts and bruises, as well as injuries to his left arm and lower leg,” Ragusa explained.
Before the crash, Giuliani had “been stopped by a woman who was a domestic violence victim” and had reached out to law enforcement on her behalf, Ragusa noted. Following the arrival of the police, Giuliani resumed his journey, and his vehicle was hit shortly after merging back onto the highway, a situation “completely unrelated” to the domestic violence case, according to Ragusa’s email to The Associated Press.
Giuliani was in a rental car and “no one knew it was him,” Ragusa also said in the post on X.
Requests for comments and further details about the domestic incident and collision were not immediately answered by another Giuliani spokesperson, Ted Goodman, and the New Hampshire State Police.
“I appreciate everyone who has reached out after hearing the news about my Father,” wrote Andrew Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani’s son, in a post on X. “Your prayers mean the world to us.”
The weekend crash follows some rocky years for the onetime Republican presidential candidate, who was dubbed “America’s mayor” in light of his leadership in New York after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Giuliani later became President Donald Trump’s personal attorney for a time and a vocal proponent of Trump’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden. Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits claiming fraud, and numerous recounts, reviews and audits of the election results turned up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error.
Two former Georgia elections workers later won a $148 million defamation judgment against Giuliani. As they sought to collect the judgment, the former federal prosecutor was found in contempt of court and faced a trial this winter over the ownership of some of his assets. He ultimately struck a deal that let him keep his homes and various belongings, including prized World Series rings, in exchange for unspecified compensation and a promise to stop speaking ill of the ex-election workers. ____
Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz in New York City contributed to this report.
