Rudy Giuliani Reportedly Looks to Donald Trump to Fund His Legal Defense After FBI Raid – By Jerry Lambe (Law and Crime) / May 4 2021
With a federal investigation into Rudy Giuliani intensifying in recent weeks, advisers to the former New York City mayor have been pushing for former President Donald Trump to foot the mounting bill for Giuliani’s legal defense team as compensation for his contributions to several unsuccessful lawsuits to overturn the 2020 election, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, which was sourced only to several people “familiar with the discussions,” Giuliani’s camp has turned up the pressure on Trump aides since federal investigators last week executed a search warrant on Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment and seized several of his electronic devices.
The investigation into Giuliani reportedly stems from Giuliani’s business dealings in Ukraine that placed him at the center of systematic efforts to oust former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Just before Trump’s first impeachment investigation in 2019, Giuliani’s conduct in Ukraine came into focus during the prosecution of his former associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. Parnas later cooperated with House investigators, sharing thousands of files and implicating Giuliani in Yovanovitch’s termination.
While authorities began the probe in late 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan had reportedly sought to execute such a warrant on Giuliani, only to be thwarted by senior political appointees inside the Justice Department.
