Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan Apartment Raided By DOJ; Electronic Devices Seized

Federal investigators in Manhattan executed a search warrant today on former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Upper East Side apartment, according to the New York Times, whose three anonymous sources say is an escalation of a “criminal investigation into Mr. Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine.”

According to the report, “Executing a search warrant is an extraordinary move for prosecutors to take against a lawyer, let alone a lawyer for a former president, and it marks a major turning point in the long-running investigation into Mr. Giuliani.”

Among other things, Giuliani’s electronic devices were reportedly seized as part of the search, according to one of the sources.

The feds are looking into whether Giuliani illegally lobbied the Trump administration in 2019 on behalf of prominent Ukrainians, who were simultaneously helping Giuliani uncover allegedly shady dealings by the Biden family while then Vice President Joe Biden was in charge of Ukraine policy for the Obama administration.

For months, the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan and the FBI had sought a search warrant for Giuliani’s phones – which senior political appointees in the Trump DOJ allegedly sought to block, according to the Times. Under new Attorney General Merrick Garland, the DOJ lifted its objection to the search.

While investigating Mr. Giuliani, prosecutors have examined, among other things, his potential business dealings in Ukraine and his role in pushing the Trump administration to oust the American ambassador to Ukraine, which was the subject of testimony at Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial.

As he was pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate the Bidens, Mr. Giuliani became fixated on removing the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch, whom he saw as an obstacle to those efforts. At the urging of Mr. Giuliani and other Republicans, Mr. Trump ultimately removed Ms. Yovanovitch. –NY Times

Federal prosecutors are now looking at whether Giuliani was working for Ukrainian officials at the same time as he was serving as former President Trump’s personal attorney – and whether Ukrainian officials or businesses wanted Yovanovitch to be removed for their own reasons, according to the Times anonymous sources.

Another Ukrainian official under the spotlight is Yuriy Lutsenko, one of the officials who assisted Giuliani and his associates in their investigation of the Bidens. Lutsenko allegedly paid Giuliani’s firm hundreds of thousands of dollars in unrelated consulting business, which resulted in a draft retainer agreement which was never executed.

Giuliani has repeatedly said he turned down the deal, which would have involved his efforts to recover money that the Ukrainian government believes was stolen and stashed offshore.