WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday he will award former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, two days after his longtime political ally was seriously injured in a car crash.

The decision places the award on a man once lauded for leading New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and later sanctioned by courts and disbarred for amplifying false claims about the 2020 election. Giuliani was also criminally charged in two states; he has denied wrongdoing.

Trump in a statement on social media called Giuliani the “greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, and an equally great American Patriot.”

For much of the past two decades, Giuliani’s public life has been defined by a striking rise and fall. After leadin

See Full Page