Topline
Federal officials who raided attorney Rudy Giuliani’s apartment and office in April took 18 electronic devices belonging to the former New York City mayor that are now under review, according to a court document released Thursday, as the Trump lawyer and longtime GOP star faces an escalating investigation into his ties to Ukraine.
Key Facts
The 18 electronic devices belong to Giuliani and “certain employees” of his business Giuliani Partners LLC and were seized by special agents from the FBI, according to an April letter from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to the judge overseeing the search warrant on Giuliani’s apartment.
Giuliani has previously said the seizure included multiple computers and cell phones.
Agents also seized one electronic device from conservative attorney Victoria Toensing in a raid on her apartment connected to the Giuliani investigation, U.S. attorney Audrey Strauss said.
At the time the letter was written—it is dated April 29 and was initially released May 4, before being released again Thursday with a number of redactions removed—Strauss noted that FBI technical specialists were working to extract data from the devices but had not yet started reviewing them.
In addition to the electronic devices seized in April, FBI officials also seized email and iCloud data from Giuliani and Toensing in 2019 through separate search warrants.
The letter is part of the court’s consideration on whether there should be a “special master” appointed who could independently review the electronic records and ensure any attorney-client privilege is protected, which Strauss argued was necessary because of “the unusually sensitive privilege issues that the Warrants may implicate.”
Tangent
Giuliani previously claimed on Fox News he offered to hand over hard drives belonging to Hunter Biden to federal agents during the raid, but they did not accept them.
Chief Critic
Giuliani has maintained his innocence and decried the raid on his apartment, and claimed the search warrant was unnecessary because he was cooperating with the investigation. In their own letter to the judge regarding the appointment of a special master, Giuliani’s attorneys argued the Southern District of New York—which Giuliani previously led—was “treat[ing] a distinguished lawyer as if he was the head of a drug cartel or a terrorist, in order to create maximum prejudicial coverage of both Giuliani, and his most well known client – the former President of the United States.”
Surprising Fact
The federal investigation into Giuliani reportedly focuses on whether he violated foreign lobbying rules in his relations with Ukrainians—including regarding the ouster of former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch—but may go further, with Politico reporting Tuesday that investigators have also been looking into Giuliani’s connections to Romania as well.
Key Background
Federal investigators raided Giuliani’s apartment on April 28 as part of a long-running probe into the attorney’s ties to Ukraine. The apartment raid marked a sharp escalation of the investigation after it was reportedly put on hold in the waning days of the Trump administration, with Trump-era Justice Department officials in Washington D.C. reportedly holding up prosecutors’ request for a search warrant after it was first requested over the summer. The federal investigation is one of several legal troubles the longtime Trump attorney now faces, in addition to defamation lawsuits brought by voting machine companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic over baseless election fraud claims Giuliani has pushed involving their machines. He also faces two lawsuits from House lawmakers over his efforts with the Trump campaign to overturn the election results and their alleged impact on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building. (Giuliani has denied any wrongdoing in all of the cases.)
Further Reading
Rudy Giuliani Hires Harvey Weinstein’s Defense Attorneys To Represent Him In Federal Probe (Forbes)
Feds Search Giuliani’s, Toensing’s Properties As Part Of Ukraine Investigation (Forbes)
Report: Trump’s Justice Department Held Up Giuliani Investigation By Blocking Warrant Request (Forbes)
"Electronic" - Google News
May 21, 2021 at 02:29AM
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Feds Took 18 Electronic Devices From Giuliani Apartment During Raid - Forbes
"Electronic" - Google News
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