Transcript of Mystery surrounds Rudy Giuliani's settlement with with election workers he defamed

Tonight, who bailed Rudy Giuliani out? So the former New York City mayor and Trump lawyer dodging trial today. By reaching a surprise agreement with the two Georgia election workers, he is convicted of defaming during the 2020 election. The stunning announcement came after a long, unexplained delay as Giuliani was supposed to take the stand today because he was facing the threat of losing his three and a half million dollar Florida condo and several World Series rings from the New York Yankees. But he didn't show up to court. Instead, he posted a video, this video, of his dog at Mar-a-Lago. As reporters were sitting in the courtroom waiting for hours wondering where he was. It was this bizarre mystery. And then all of a sudden comes this announcement today, a settlement. The Georgia election workers as Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shay Maas, saying in a statement, We have agreed to allow Mr. Giuliani to retain his property in exchange for compensation and his promise not to ever defame us. Caitlin Polance is out front. I mean, Kaitlyn, this is pretty stunning. There was an incredible amount of money at stake here, and I guess it appeared clear Giuliani wouldn't have that full amount.

But then at the very last minute, everyone's sitting in the courtroom, and then a last minute bailout after months of trying to hold on to things like those rings and apartment. The big mystery today is who the heck bailed him out? What do you know?

Erin, what a mystery I've been asking. Many people, both sides involved in this case, and nothing. Nobody will say anything about how this happened, how it came about. If there is money that Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss are getting. But Aaron, if you step back and look at the situation as it stood for Rudy Giuliani going into today, where he could have lost that condo in Florida worth about three and a half million dollars, and also the World Series rings worth a couple of tens of thousands of dollars. He only had about $10 million through his name, and they had already won the vast majority of it. He had even shipped them his luxury watch collection. They were pocketing all of these things. Then the settlement announcement comes. It says, this concludes all of the litigation between Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss. Those two women that Giuliani had defamed earned $150 million jury verdict. His appeals were basically dead in the water at this point in time in the courts. They were continuing to win sanctions against Giuliani because he just wasn't complying with court orders. They were winning and winning and winning. Then Giuliani and Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss announced this settlement.

They put out statements with little clues. Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss's statement says he gets to retain his property in exchange for compensation. No number there. And then Rudy Giuliani's own thing says, I get to retain my New York co-op and Florida condominium and all of my personal belongings. Hanging over all of this, though, Erin, is this question, did Donald Trump or anyone connected to Trump help him in some And by the way, there was a close friend of Giuliani that was on another station just a few days ago saying, Somebody around Trump should help. Then Trump posts online, Save Rudy, multiple exclamation points. Then this settlement comes into being on this trial.

Just to be clear here, Kaitlyn, to understand, they won Ruby and Shay, $150 million jury verdict. We know there's a settlement in here, so presumably, they're settling for less. But do you know the amount? How much money are they getting from this mysterious? We don't know.

No idea. Giuliani was not just in debt to them. He had a lot of other debts to other people as well. There's a big question, how much would it have taken for them to just end this all? They were already getting so much out of him. Already, we're very close to having the keys to that six and a half million dollar New York condo that he had been trying to sell before that they could have sold as well.

All right, Kaitlyn, thank you very much. I mean, it is stunning. I mean, It's a bizarre mystery. Randy Zelen's out front, Manhattan criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor. So, Randy, we have no idea how Rudy Giuliani got the money for this. We know that the two election workers had already won $150 million in a jury settlement. They'd already won, and they'd won. He had nowhere to go, but he didn't have all that money. So I guess let's just start with the question is, you saw the post from the President-Elect, and you heard what one of his inner circle said on TV about Save Rudy. Do you think there was something Somebody in a high place, somebody for whom some massive amount of money is nothing who just got in here and helped Rudy Giuliani?

There is no question that a betting person would say that someone who is very interested in spending warmer climate at Mar-a-Lago. And to your point in your earlier segment, look who's showing up at the inauguration. People, whether they like it or not, understand that the next four years are going to be Trump World. And you can be part of it, or you can get out of the way of it, or you can get hit by it. And I think, yes, it is entirely plausible, and we'll never know. But someone decided to be that benevolent benefactor who will get something out of this. And don't be surprised also if these women also recognize, boy, it would really be nice to be able to get on with our lives because I think we all got the sense from these women, it really was never about money. It was about their reputations and the restorations of their reputations. And now that Mr. Giuliani, and I promise you, he'll never speak about this again. They have their reputations back.

So the jury had awarded them, as I mentioned, $150 million. As you know, Randy, that was actually three times what Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss had asked for. They'd asked for $48 million. Whatever you think of all these numbers, a jury gave them three times what they asked for. We know Giuliani didn't have that money. He didn't have anywhere near that money, and he owes a lot of money to a lot of other people. How much do you think they settled for in this deal? Do you have any just your own thought on this as a defense attorney and prosecutor?

I'll say a couple of things to that point. First of all, again, my own sense of it is, I don't believe that these women were ever motivated by money. And let's face it, they had a judgment. They had a piece of paper that says they have $148 million. What did it get them? It got them continued aggravation. It got them continued bad notoriety. This became their legacy. Mr. Giuliani, quite frankly, is someone who's got nothing to lose right now. This isn't even the biggest of his problems. He's got two other indictments where President Trump can't pardon him because they're state cases. You don't want to do battle with someone with nothing to lose because he just kept defaming them. He didn't care about the sanctions, didn't care about being held in contempt. These women were never going to get a peaceful night's rest. So I think they went on that one end. But also, if you're not motivated by money, what's a lot of money? Is a million dollars a lot of money? Is $2 million a lot of money? Is $5 million a lot of money? If you're not motivated by money, I don't think you need all that much money to be happy.

I don't think it takes a lot for these women to be happy.

All right. Well, Randy, thank you very much. I appreciate it. It's a fascinating story. We can assume that obviously, there's this nondisclosure agreements were signed, and I don't know what we will know, but it is a mystery. And before we go, earlier, I said Rudy Giuliani was convicted of defamation. I want to be clear, it was a civil case, which means he was found liable for defamation.