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Feds
search
Rudy
Giuliani's
NYC
home,
office
By
MICHAEL
R.
SISAK,
MICHAEL
BALSAMO
and
ERIC
TUCKER
apnews.com
NEW
YORK -
Federal
agents
on
Wednesday
raided
Rudy
Giuliani’s
Manhattan
home and
office,
seizing
computers
and cell
phones
in a
major
escalation
of the
Justice
Department’s
investigation
into the
business
dealings
of
former
President
Donald
Trump’s
personal
lawyer.
Giuliani,
the
former
New York
City
mayor
once
celebrated
for his
leadership
in the
aftermath
of the
9/11
attacks,
has been
under
federal
scrutiny
for
several
years
over his
ties to
Ukraine.
The dual
searches
sent the
strongest
signal
yet that
he could
eventually
face
federal
charges.
Agents
searched
Giuliani’s
home on
Madison
Avenue
and his
office
on Park
Avenue,
people
familiar
with the
investigation
told the
Associated
Press.
The
warrants,
which
require
approval
from the
top
levels
of the
Justice
Department,
signify
prosecutors
believe
they
have
probable
cause
that
Giuliani
committed
a
federal
crime —
though
they
don’t
guarantee
charges
will
materialize.
The
full
scope of
the
investigation
is
unclear,
but it
at least
partly
involves
Giuliani’s
dealings
in
Ukraine,
law
enforcement
officials
have
told the
AP.
The
people
discussing
the
searches
and
Wednesday’s
developments
could
not do
so
publicly
and
spoke to
the AP
on
condition
of
anonymity.
News of
the
search
was
first
reported
by The
New York
Times.
A
message
seeking
comment
was left
with
Giuliani’s
lawyer ,
Robert
Costello.
He told
The Wall
Street
Journal
that
agents
showed
up at
dawn on
Wednesday
and
castigated
the
raids as
“legal
thuggery.”
Giuliani
himself
had
previously
called
the
investigation
“pure
political
persecution.”
A
Justice
Department
spokesperson
did not
immediately
respond
to a
request
for
comment.
The U.S.
Attorney’s
office
in
Manhattan
and the
FBI’s
New York
office
declined
to
comment
Wednesday.
The
federal
probe
into
Giuliani’s
Ukraine
dealings
stalled
last
year
because
of a
dispute
over
investigative
tactics
as Trump
unsuccessfully
sought a
second
term.
Giuliani
subsequently
took on
a
leading
role in
disputing
the
election
results
on the
Republican’s
behalf.
Wednesday’s
raids
came
months
after
Trump
left
office
and lost
his
ability
to
pardon
allies
for
federal
crimes.
The
former
president
himself
no
longer
enjoys
the
legal
protections
the Oval
Office
once
provided
him —
though
there is
no
indication
Trump is
eyed in
this
probe.
Many
people
in
Trump’s
orbit
have
previously
been
ensnared
in
federal
investigations,
namely
special
counsel
Robert
Mueller’s
probe of
Russian
election
interference.
But most
of those
criminal
cases
either
fizzled
or fell
apart.
Giuliani’s
is
different.
Giuliani
was
central
to the
then-president’s
efforts
to dig
up dirt
against
Democratic
rival
Joe
Biden
and to
press
Ukraine
for an
investigation
into
Biden
and his
son,
Hunter —
who
himself
now
faces a
criminal
tax
probe by
the
Justice
Department.
Giuliani
also
sought
to
undermine
former
U.S.
ambassador
to
Ukraine
Marie
Yovanovitch,
who was
pushed
out on
Trump’s
orders,
and met
several
times
with a
Ukrainian
lawmaker
who
released
edited
recordings
of Biden
in an
effort
to smear
him
before
the
election.
Giuliani’s
lawyer,
Costello,
told The
Wall
Street
Journal
that the
searches
pertained
to
potential
violations
of
foreign
lobbying
rules
and that
the
warrants
sought
Giuliani’s
communications
with
people
including
John
Solomon,
a former
columnist
and
frequent
Fox News
commentator
with
close
ties to
Giuliani,
who
pushed
several
baseless
or
unsubstantiated
allegations
involving
Ukraine
and
Biden
during
the 2020
election.
Contacted
Wednesday,
Solomon
said it
was news
to him
that the
Justice
Department
was
interested
in any
communications
he had
with
Giuliani,
though
he said
it was
not
entirely
surprising
given
the
issues
raised
in
Trump’s
first
impeachment
trial.
“He
was
someone
that
tried to
pass
information
to me. I
didn’t
use most
of it,”
Solomon
said of
Giuliani.
“If they
want to
look at
that,
there’s
not
going to
be
anything
surprising
in it.”
Everything
was
sitting
“in
plain
view,”
he said.
He
said he
believed
his
reporting
had
“stood
the test
of time”
and
maintained
that he
was
“unaware
of a
single
factual
error”
in any
of his
stories.
Solomon’s
former
employer,
The Hill
newspaper,
published
a review
last
year of
some of
his
columns
and
determined
they
were
lacking
in
context
and
missing
key
disclosures.
Solomon
previously
worked
for The
Associated
Press,
departing
the news
organization
in 2006.
The
federal
Foreign
Agents
Registration
Act
requires
people
who
lobby on
behalf
of a
foreign
government
or
entity
to
register
with the
Justice
Department.
The
once-obscure
law,
aimed at
improving
transparency,
has
received
a burst
of
attention
in
recent
years —
particularly
during
Mueller’s
probe,
which
revealed
an array
of
foreign
influence
operations
in the
U.S.
Federal
prosecutors
in
Manhattan
had
pushed
last
year for
a search
warrant
for
records,
including
some of
Giuliani’s
communications,
but
officials
in the
Trump-era
Justice
Department
would
not sign
off on
the
request,
according
to
multiple
people
who
insisted
on
anonymity
to speak
about
the
ongoing
investigation
with
which
they
were
familiar.
Officials
in the
then-deputy
attorney
general’s
office
raised
concerns
about
both the
scope of
the
request,
which
they
thought
would
contain
communications
that
could be
covered
by legal
privilege
between
Giuliani
and
Trump,
and the
method
of
obtaining
the
records,
three of
the
people
said.
The
issue
was
widely
expected
to be
revisited
by the
Justice
Department
once
Attorney
General
Merrick
Garland
assumed
office.
Garland
was
confirmed
last
month
and
Deputy
Attorney
General
Lisa
Monaco
was
confirmed
to her
position
and
sworn in
last
week.
The
Justice
Department
requires
that
applications
for
search
warrants
served
on
lawyers
be
approved
by
senior
department
officials.
___
Tucker
reported
from
Washington.
Associated
Press
writers
Larry
Neumeister
and Tom
Hays in
New York
and
Colleen
Long in
Washington
contributed
reporting.
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