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.
