The road accident that left Rudy Giuliani in a body brace has raised a litany of questions as to what really happened.
The 81-year-old former New York City mayor was seriously injured in the collision on the I-93 highway in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Saturday night, when 19-year-old Lauren Kemp rear-ended the car he was a passenger in.
But even Kemp’s mother is questioning the official version of events.
‘There’s several different stories out there so it’s all kind of fishy,’ Ellen Kemp told the Daily Mail.
The official version is that Giuliani was being driven south on the six-lane Interstate by his spokesman, Ted Goodman, after they attended a baseball game in Manchester between the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and Erie SeaWolves.
The pair, in a rented Ford Bronco, were flagged down by a woman in a vehicle who claimed she was being abused by the person she was with. Goodman pulled over and called 911.
They waited at the scene with the woman and the other person until the police arrived.
Goodman and Giuliani, who said they were traveling south to Dover, Massachusetts, then continued their journey but got off at the next exit and made a U-turn to drive north.
Bruised Rudy Giuliani, 81, appeared on his X show America’s Mayor Live in an upper body brace after he was seriously injured in a bizarre accident in Manchester, New Hampshire
Lauren Kemp, 19, rear-ended Giuliani’s car after he had changed directions and started heading north rather than south
Then, when they reached the spot almost directly opposite the scene of the domestic violence incident, they were rear-ended by Kemp’s Honda HR-V.
The news sparked instant confusion and questions among internet sleuths.
Top of the list: Quite how was Giuliani flagged down on such a busy interstate?
Indeed, residents living around Day Street and Blevens Drive in Manchester, where homes back onto the I-93, told the Daily Mail that they had heard the ‘strange’ story and suggested the hectic road would be a dangerous place for someone to flag down help across multiple lanes of traffic.
On Tuesday, Goodman released a photograph he claimed to have taken, apparently showing the spot where he pulled over to help the woman on the south side of I-93.
‘The headlights you see in that picture is, I believe, the original car of the two individuals who had flagged us down and right in the front of the picture you see our back taillight,’ Goodman said.
One local resident, who did not give his name, said there had been several crashes on the highway in his decades living there and it was known to be a risky stretch of road.
Another particularly pertinent question is what became of the alleged domestic abuse victim?
On Rudy Giuliani’s show, Giuliani and Goodman say a state trooper at the scene said the woman had turned out to be the aggressor and had badly beaten the man she was with.
But there is no record of whether she has been arrested or charged with any crime or whether the alleged victim had needed hospital treatment.
After the harrowing incident, the former mayor and his spokesman said the troopers asked Giuliani for a selfie on the busy interstate, which he happily agreed to.
What does the New Hampshire State Police have to say about the pair’s latest claims?
Not a lot.
The spot where Giuliani suffered a cracked vertebra after his car was struck from behind by Kemp late Saturday night
On Tuesday, Giuliani’s spokesman, Ted Goodman, who was also in the car during the crash, shared a photograph he said showed the spot on the south side of I-93 where the pair pulled over to help the woman, after online sleuths raised doubts about how the crash unfolded
Kemp was said to be ‘bleeding’ and ‘very distraught’ after her Honda SUV rear-ended Giuliani’s vehicle
Residents near Day Street and Blevens Drive in Manchester, where some homes back onto I-93, called the story ‘strange’ and noted the busy highway would be a dangerous place to stop and flag for help across several lanes of traffic
State troopers declined to answer Daily Mail’s questions on it and referred it back to its previous news releases.
The problem is, statements by the force on August 31 and September 1, when read against those by Giuliani’s associates, also raise more questions than answers.
Michael Ragusa, Giuliani’s head of security, said before the car crash, Giuliani ‘was flagged down by a woman who was the victim of a domestic violence incident’ and told how ‘Mayor Giuliani immediately rendered assistance and contacted 911‘.
‘He remained on the scene until responding officers arrived to ensure her safety.’
Given Giuliani and Goodman’s extended account of the crash, they appear not to have told Ragusa the female ‘domestic violence victim’ had in fact been the alleged aggressor, or that it was actually Goodman who was driving and contacted 911?
New Hampshire State Police’s first statement on August 31 did not mention Giuliani’s supposed heroics in the domestic violence incident.
Ragusa did not respond to Daily Mail’s questions about Giuliani’s health and recovery after the crash, his apparent earlier assistance to the domestic violence victim or whether his team had had an update about the case.
He later took to social media, insisting the crash ‘was not a targeted attack’ on the former mayor and hit out at those ‘spreading unfounded conspiracy theories’.
In their first statement, police said just before 10pm, troopers attended the domestic violence incident on the I-93 southbound at Manchester when the collision occurred across from them on the north side of the interstate.
The smash, police said, saw both ‘heavily damaged’ cars plough into the median.
It, unsurprisingly, prompted a flurry of questions.
How could Goodman and Giuliani have seen and assisted the alleged domestic violence victim so late at night and how could they have managed to brake and stop anywhere near her?
And why would they stop on a busy highway late at night?
Confusion deepened when New Hampshire State Police and Giuliani’s head of security, Michael Ragusa, gave conflicting accounts – Ragusa insisted Giuliani made the 911 call, contradicting the cops’ statement that credited Goodman
On Giuliani’s show, he and Goodman claimed a state trooper told them the woman was actually the aggressor and had badly beaten her companion – contradicting Ragusa’s account that she had been the victim
After police arrived at the scene, Giuliani and Goodman left the interstate to turn around and go northbound when they were struck by Kemp
Others wondered if the two incidents were related and, if so, how?
But in their second statement on September 1, police sought to clarify these questions, stating that before the crash on the northbound I-93, Giuliani and Goodman were traveling southbound ‘when they were flagged down by a woman on the side of the road, just south of Exit 9N, who reported to them she had been involved in a domestic violence incident’.
It added that just before 9pm, Goodman – not Giuliani – called 911 and that he and the former mayor stayed at the scene until troopers arrived and told them what they had witnessed and left the interstate via a ‘nearby exit’.
‘Minutes later’ Goodman and Giuliani were back on the I-93, ‘this time heading northbound when they were struck from behind at mile marker 23.2, almost directly across from the scene of the reported domestic violence incident on the southbound side’.
Why did Goodman and Giuliani suddenly make a U-turn and head northbound? The exact reason remains unclear.
Recounting the moment their car was hit, Giuliani said he would have been ‘killed’ had he not been wearing his seatbelt, adding: ‘We got hit in the back, I would say, the hardest I’ve ever been hit in my whole life, including two accidents I was in when I was a child and playing football.
‘It seemed like the car was going maximum speed 70-80 miles an hour, kind of spinned us a teeny bit…instead of getting a whiplash in my neck, I got a whiplash in my body.
‘My body got thrown forward in a second and thrown back and I could feel the pain immediately in the middle of my body.’
Giuliani was spotted at a baseball game with Dr. Maria Ryan, 59, hours before his terrifying car crash on Saturday
Police said there is ‘no connection’ between the first and second incidents and that it would continue to investigate ‘whether distraction or curiosity of the initial scene was a factor’ in the crash.
It said footage from troopers’ dashboard and body-worn cameras is ‘being reviewed’ but that ‘no charges had been filed’.
The other question is, where exactly is Giuliani – who appeared on his show wearing a back brace – recuperating?
He was initially said to be recovering at Elliot Hospital in Manchester until later this week, but was suddenly released Monday afternoon.
An associate told the NY Times Giuliani said he would recover in Manchester, where he has several friends.
They include Dr. Maria Ryan, his business partner – who has often been referred to as his girlfriend. She is said to have immediately rushed to his bedside on learning of the smash.
Giuliani and his associates have repeatedly denied any romantic relationship between him and the married Ryan.
Visited this week at the Manchester home she shares with her husband, Robert, Ryan confirmed they had gone to the baseball game with Giuliani.
Although Ryan reportedly rushed to his bedside after the crash, she told Daily Mail that Giuliani was staying with his girlfriend at ‘at the coast’
Ryan has often been seen with Giuliani in the past, prompting speculation that the pair were an item, something that both have denied
Kemp, a recent high school graduate, is ‘a bit sore’ following the accident, her mother Ellen told Daily Mail
She added that Giuliani was healing well and isn’t staying at her home.
Insisting Giuliani ‘isn’t here’, she added: ‘He’s staying at the coast with his girlfriend’.
But where on the coast, and who is this mystery girlfriend?
She refused to divulge Giuliani’s girlfriend’s name or where on the coast he was staying, saying it is his ‘private information’.
Ryan then declared Giuliani ‘an American hero’ – a reference to Donald Trump announcing he will grant him the President Medal of Freedom.
Giuliani said hearing he will be awarded the highest civilian honor was ‘the best medicine’ and he ‘felt totally better’.
He said a back brace is ‘holding’ his fractured spine together, adding he was ‘recovering as the doctor predicted’ and that it would be three or four weeks until he was completely healed.
And how is the young driver who Giuliani and Goodman said was ‘bleeding’ and ‘very distraught’ at the scene?
Speaking from her home in Concord, New Hampshire, Kemp, a recent high school graduate and a student at Saint Anselm’s Catholic College in Manchester, said she was ‘not allowed to discuss it’ and directed our reporter to speak to her mother.
Her mom told Daily Mail her daughter is a ‘bit sore’ and did not realize it was Giuliani she had collided with, but insisted they could not discuss what happened.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .