Rudy Giuliani satisfies Fulton County election workers’ $148 million defamation case
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(FULTON COUNTY, GA) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday satisfied the judgment against him that required him to pay two Fulton County election workers a total of $148 million for defamation.
A jury found Giuliani liable in 2023 for defaming Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss by falsely accusing them of tampering with the 2020 presidential vote in Georgia.
In the process of reaching a settlement in January, he was held in contempt twice, by two different federal judges, for failing to relinquish possessions and continuing to defame the two election workers.
Court documents showed that the settlement action was dismissed in district court on Monday after it was determined that Giuliani had fully satisfied his obligations to Freeman and Moss.
Giuliani began surrendering assets soon after a federal jury determined what he should pay Freeman and Moss in damages and penalties in December 2024.
The settlement last month allowed him to keep his condo in Florida and his World Series rings.
A statement from Giuliani at the time of the settlement said that he would agree not to further defame the two election workers. It did not include an admission of guilt.
Giuliani was previously disbarred in New York and in Washington after his law license was stripped over his efforts to aid President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election.
His representative, Ted Goodman, said in a statement last month that the plaintiffs’ attorneys could take the possessions from the former Trump lawyer, “but they can never take away his extraordinary record of public service.”
(NEW YORK) — A storm system that brought rain and snow to Southern California will move into Texas and the South by Wednesday, bringing flash flood and severe weather threat.
The storm’s highest rain total was in Santa Barbara County, which saw 2.23 inches. Los Angeles County saw 1.62 inches and Santa Monica had 1.38 inches. Totals were less than an inch at Los Angeles International Airport and in Downtown Los Angeles.
Western storm will reemerge in southern Plains states by late afternoon on Wednesday, into the overnight hours with severe weather possible for central and northern Texas, including Dallas.
In addition, this storm system will bring very heavy rain and flash flood threat from Texas to western Kentucky, including Dallas, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee, and Paducah, Kentucky.
Locally some areas could see more than 4 inches of rain, this will lead to flash flooding on Thursday.
Snow squalls in the Northeast and Midwest
Several quick moving storm systems combined with the lake effect, will bring strong winds and snow to parts of the Great Lakes and Northeast today into Thursday.
Early on Tuesday, a snow squall warning was issued for Syracuse, New York, where visibility was dropping close to zero in spots.
At least five states this morning are under snow and wind alerts from the Midwest to the Northeast.
The heaviest snow and strongest winds will be from northern Michigan to western Pennsylvania and New York and into northern New England, where locally a foot of snow is forecast with wind gusts near 60 mph.
Whiteout conditions are possible in some of these heavier snow bands.
Further south and east, for the I-95 corridor, a dusting to 1 inch of snow is possible from Hudson Valley in New York to Connecticut and Massachusetts. Boston and Hartford could see the snow.
(NEW YORK) — New York City is known for its towering skyscrapers and bustling streets, but lurking beneath the glitz and glamour of the city that never sleeps are 3 million resilient rats that have cemented their place as native New Yorkers.
According to Orkin, the pest control service, New York has been ranked as the third rattiest city in the country behind Los Angeles and Chicago. Now local officials are taking up the battle against the city’s furry rodents.
In 2023, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the city’s first Rat Czar, drawing national attention. Since then, many citywide initiatives have been explored.
Director of Rodent Mitigation Kathleen Corradi, aka the Rat Czar, is taking on the task of educating fellow New Yorkers with a new program called Rat Walks. It’s a program available in all boroughs where attendees learn everything about rats, their habits, and what human behaviors encourage the rodents to stick around.
In October, Corradi told participants attending a rat walk, “We’re doing a lot in this administration to make sure we’re containerizing, make sure we’re changing behaviors around waste management.”
Given a $3.5 million budget, Corradi is tasked with reducing the city’s rat population. Still, she says it’s up to New Yorkers, too, “The only way we are successful is getting an educated public change in behaviors and addressing those conditions that support rats. Extermination will always be a part of the conversation, but we know the long-term success relies on front-end equation, and that’s where we’re really focusing and empowering New Yorkers,” she told ABC News.
Several New Yorkers living in rat mitigation zones spoke to ABC News about seeing rats in their neighborhood. “The rats were all over the place, like just ‘Ratatouille,'” Shea Sullivan, a NYC resident, told ABC News. Samir, a superintendent, told us the situation in some of his apartment buildings was getting so out of hand that he had to drown rats himself, “I drowned them in water and killed them. This is ridiculous. It has to be changed completely.”
As New Yorkers are dealing with rats in their homes or neighborhoods, others are taking a different approach to tackling the issue. New York City Council Member Shaun Abreu launched Bill 736, or “Flaco’s law.” The bill passed on Sept. 26, 2024, and will implement rat contraceptives in areas where trash is containerized. He told ABC News that rat birth control can help curb rat populations, but only if trash is fully contained so the rodents don’t have anything else to eat.
Two years ago, his office also introduced Rat Mitigation Zones, securing $11.5 million to fund the initiative.
“Through my legislation two years ago, the city established five rat mitigation zones, and in these rat mitigation zones citywide rat sightings have gone down by 14%, at least, based off of 311 complaints,” Abreu told ABC News. In 2024, his office also introduced a residential pilot program to containerize trash in Harlem, an area largely infested with rats. “You have these giant bins out on the street and since we’ve implemented that last September, trash is now in containers. Now they’re not out for a rat buffet anymore. 311 complaints for rat sightings have gone down by 55%. No other intervention has been done this past year,” he told ABC News.
With the passing of Bill 736, rat contraceptives are expected to be rolled out on New York City streets by April 26, 2025. The company WISDOM Good Works is expected to partner with the city to manage and maintain the distribution of rat birth control. “We’ve been working with City Council offices as well as city agencies that will be enforcing the bill,” the director of operations at WISDOM Good Works, Alaina Gonzalez-White, told ABC News.
She says that the birth control pellets are safer for all wildlife, not just rats. “It’s formulated to target the reproductive system of an animal the size of a rat. Anything that eats that rat will no longer be eating a poisoned meal.” PETA supports the initiative.
Ashley Byrne, senior campaigner for PETA, told us the end of rat poison, known as rodenticide, would mean saving the lives of pets that may come in contact with rats. “Ultimately, slaughtering rats doesn’t work. The only long-term and humane solution is prevention. No animal deserves to experience the slow suffering and miserable death that results from ingesting rat poison.”
Abreu shared his mission to combat rat populations more humanely, saying, “My goal personally is not for rats to go extinct. Our goal is (to) coexist in a way where rats aren’t showing up. I think our message is very much in line with the PETA message. We believe in New York City, we should throw everything we can at the problem from shutting off the food supply, but also targeting rat reproduction at the source.”
(NEW YORK) — The search for an unidentified gunman who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the investigation into a possible motive, remain ongoing Friday.
Thompson, 50, was shot Wednesday morning outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel, where the insurance group’s investors conference was being held. The masked gunman appeared to be lying in wait outside the Hilton hotel before shooting Thompson at close range, police said.
Police said they are interviewing Thompson’s colleagues and family about any potential specific threats while they investigate a motive into the shooting.
Evidence collected from the scene of the shocking shooting include shell casings with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on them, according to police sources.
ABC News contributor Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent, said he believes the shooter is “trying to send a message” through the words.
“It strikes me that it has to do with insurance companies using those terms in some of their processes of turning down claims,” Garrett told ABC News Live’s Stephanie Ramos when asked about the words. “It’s a common complaint by people of having claims denied, and so I think this shooter is trying to send a message that someone — either himself or a loved one or someone close to him — has been harmed by this insurance company.”
“There wouldn’t be, logically, any other reason,” he added.
The words on the shell casings also echo the title of a 2010 book “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.” Police are aware of the similarity, and are investigating whether one possible motive is anger at the insurance industry, sources said.
The book was written by legal scholar and insurance expert Jay Feinman, a professor emeritus at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey.
It explores abuses of auto and homeowners insurance to “avoid paying justified claims,” according to its summary.
“Today the name of the game is delay, deny, defend: to improve their profits, insurance companies delay payment of justified claims, deny payment altogether, and defend their actions by forcing claimants to enter litigation,” the book description states.
This strategy is not restricted to auto and homeowners insurance, the introduction states. “All insurance companies have an incentive to chisel their customers in order to increase profits,” it says.
ABC News has reached out to Feinman for comment.
In a response to a post on X that mentioned his book and the words on the shell casings, Feinman said he has “no comment” to media inquiries.
Police are working to identify the gunman in the shooting and his whereabouts.
After the shooting, the perpetrator fled on foot into an alley, where a phone was recovered, then fled on a bike, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
Other evidence recovered from the scene includes a water bottle and candy wrapper, police sources said.
Police have also collected video of the suspected gunman all over the city, including in the subway, in cabs and a McDonald’s, since he arrived in New York City on Nov. 24 on a Greyhound bus, sources told ABC News.
In each place, he paid with cash and he made sure to keep his mask on, which indicates to detectives he knew he was coming to the city to commit the crime, sources said.
Police have released several photos of the shooting suspect while asking for the public’s help in identifying him. They include images of him unmasked taken from a surveillance camera at an Upper West Side hostel, where it appears the suspect shared a room with two other men, according to police sources.
UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the world, said they are “working closely” with the NYPD in the wake of the shooting.
“So many patients, consumers, health care professionals, associations, government officials and other caring people have taken time out of their day to reach out. We are thankful, even as we grieve,” UnitedHealth Group said in a statement on Thursday. “Our priorities are, first and foremost, supporting Brian’s family; ensuring the safety of our employees; and working with law enforcement to bring the perpetrator to justice.”
“We, at UnitedHealth Group, will continue to be there for those who depend upon us for their health care,” the statement continued. “We ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy as they mourn the loss of their husband, father, brother and friend.”