US investigators have ransacked the New York apartment and office of ex-President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Rudy Giuliani. The searches are about the Ukraine activities of the 76-year-old, reported on Wednesday, among other things, the „New York Times“ („NYT“) and the news channel CNN, citing informed circles. Electronic equipment from the former New York mayor was also confiscated, which is very rare among lawyers.
According to the „New York Times“, the federal attorney’s office in New York and the FBI are investigating whether Giuliani was doing illegal lobbying work for Ukrainian government officials and oligarchs in Washington in 2019. At the same time, Trump’s lawyer was looking in Ukraine for incriminating material against the Democrat Joe Biden, who finally defeated Trump in the presidential election last November.
Reports indicate that the FBI and the New York District Attorney’s Office tried to get search warrants on Giuliani’s phones last year. However, they did not receive approval for this until the end of Trump’s term of office on January 20.
Under the new US Attorney General Merrick Garland, the applications have now apparently been granted. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department wanted to comment on the searches.
Giuliani as a middleman in Ukraine
Giuliani had played an important role in the Ukraine affair that led to Trump’s first impeachment in 2019. Trump had urged the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Selensky to campaign for help against his future challenger Biden. Giuliani, Trump’s private attorney since April 2018, was one of the US President’s middlemen and traveled to Ukraine.
Following Trump’s electoral defeat, Giuliani led the elected president’s efforts to challenge the election outcome. Giuliani, who was respected in his time as New York City Mayor, repeatedly caused a stir with bizarre appearances and unproven election fraud allegations. A voting machine manufacturer sued the lawyer for 1.3 billion dollars (almost 1.1 billion euros) in damages for defamation.
