NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Upper East Side apartment was raided by federal investigators Wednesday morning, according to a report from the New York Times.
The outlet reports federal investigators executed a search warrant at the Manhattan home as part of an investigation into whether Giuliani broke lobbying laws while serving as former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney.
Authorities have been investigating whether Giuliani illegally lobbied the Trump administration in 2019 on behalf of Ukrainian officials and oligarchs, who were allegedly helping him search for dirt on then-candidate Joe Biden, and his son Hunter.
The investigators reportedly seized Giuliani’s electronic devices.
In a statement released through his lawyer, Giuliani accused federal authorities of a “corrupt double standard" and said the Justice Department needs to get his priorities straight and focus more on Hunter Biden's hard drive than serve a warrant for electronics at his apartment.
“Mr. Giuliani respects the law, and he can demonstrate that his conduct as a lawyer and a citizen was absolutely legal and ethical,” the statement said.
According to the Times, the probe into the former New York City mayor’s Ukrainian dealings stalled in 2020 amid a dispute over investigative tactics as Trump was running for reelection, and during Giuliani's attempts to overturn the subsequent results of the election.
Investigators have been seeking to find out if Giuliani also worked to undermine the former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine, who he reportedly saw as a threat and who was allegedly pushed out on Trump’s orders, according to the Times.
Prosecutors are also looking at Trump’s former attorney’s dealings with a Ukrainian lawmaker, who reportedly helped Giuliani and his associates in their Biden dirt-digging mission.
The Times, citing sources close to the matter, reports that federal investigators sought to execute the search warrant last summer, but officials in Trump’s Department of Justice would not sign off on the request.
According to the report, federal prosecutors must consult with DOJ officials in Washington before performing search warrants involving lawyers, “because of concerns that they might obtain confidential communications with clients.”
The Associated Press reports the warrant was “widely expected to be revisited by the Justice Department once Attorney General Merrick Garland assumed office.”
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