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Federal Investigators Execute Search Warrant At Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan Home

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Federal investigators executed a search warrant at Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan home today law enforcement officials confirmed. Investigators reportedly seized some of Giuliani’s electronic devices.

The former New York City mayor and personal attorney to former President Donald Trump has been under investigation over business dealings in Ukraine. Ukraine is a cesspool of corruption and while the feds have charged two of Rudy’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, it is smart to not rush to judgment with anything coming from that country.

For example, Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch who allegedly is wrapped up in the investigation of Rudy in some fashion, just hired big-time Dem lobbyist and lawyer Lanny Davis for help with his legal troubles and got rid of his GOP leaning team.

From MSN:

As part of the investigation into Mr. Giuliani, the prosecutors have explored whether he was working not only for Mr. Trump, but also for Ukrainian officials or businesses who wanted the ambassador to be dismissed for their own reasons, according to people briefed on the matter.

Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, it is a federal crime to try to influence or lobby the United States government at the request or direction of a foreign official without disclosing it to the Justice Department.

The prosecutors have scrutinized Mr. Giuliani’s dealings with Yuriy Lutsenko, one of the officials who helped Mr. Giuliani and his associates in their dirt-digging mission while also urging them to work to get the ambassador removed.

Among other things, the prosecutors have examined discussions Mr. Giuliani had about taking on hundreds of thousands of dollars in apparently unrelated consulting business from Mr. Lutsenko, which resulted in a draft retainer agreement that was never executed.

Mr. Giuliani has said he turned down the deal, which would have involved him helping the Ukrainian government recover money it believed had been stolen and stashed overseas.

As the investigation heated up last summer, prosecutors and F.B.I. agents in Manhattan were preparing to seek the search warrant for Mr. Giuliani’s records about his efforts to remove the ambassador, but they first had to notify Justice Department officials in Washington, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Federal prosecutors must consult Justice Department officials in Washington about search warrants involving lawyers because of concerns that they might obtain confidential communications with clients. The proposed warrant for Mr. Giuliani was particularly sensitive because his most prominent client was Mr. Trump.

From Foreign Lobby:

A Ukrainian oligarch who helped President Donald Trump‘s re-election campaign investigate Joe Biden‘s son Hunter Biden has re-hired Democratic political operative Lanny Davis for help with his legal troubles.

Dmytro Firtash hired Davis and his firm Davis Goldberg & Galper this month as he faces federal bribery charges in Chicago. A billionaire gas magnate linked to former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Firtash is accused of laundering natural gas revenues and using the money to fund Yanukovych’s political party.

Davis’ firm is tasked with “attempting to correct the public record regarding false and misleading assertions in the media about Mr. Firtash by the prosecutors and others that may already have tainted the jury pool,” according to the contract filed with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The firm is also tasked with “attempting to prove that the indictment is invalid and should be dropped.”

The firm received an advance payment of $225,000 on April 12 for the first three months of work starting March 15 and is to be paid $150,000 for every three-month period starting in mid-June. Davis is registered on the account alongside Davis Goldberg & Galper partner Eleanor McManus. 

Davis previously represented Firtash between 2014 and 2015 and again starting in November 2016 but was replaced in 2019 by Republican lawyers Joseph DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, associates of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Firtash became a player in Trump’s first impeachment trial following revelations that he had offered dirt on Hunter Biden if charges against him were dropped.

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