Federal Criminal Investigation Targeting Rudy Giuliani Now Considered By Authorities

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According to a new report from the Associated Press, federal investigators are considering whether to bring criminal charges against Rudy Giuliani in connection to some of his work overseas.

As the report explains, “the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has… returned to the question of bringing a criminal case against Giuliani, focusing at least in part on whether he broke U.S. lobbying laws by failing to register as a foreign agent related to his work.” Federal investigators were already known to be looking at Giuliani’s overseas dealings, but the investigation “stalled last year over a dispute over investigative tactics,” according to the Associated Press.

More specifically, prosecutors wanted a search warrant for records including communications involving Giuliani, but “officials in the Trump-era Justice Department would not sign off on the request,” the Associated Press says. As summarized by the outlet, sources explained that “[officials] in the 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.” Senior Justice Department officials must approve applications for search warrants that could scoop up communications involving attorneys.

While allied with Trump, Giuliani has served as the now ex-president’s lawyer, and Giuliani repeatedly characterized his antics as mere lawyerly efforts on behalf of a client. In reality, Giuliani meddled in foreign affairs and allied himself with foreign interests through means including pushing for so-called dirt against the Bidens and attempting to undermine the credibility of now ex-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who Trump eventually ousted. Giuliani pushed the ideas that Yovanovitch was somehow scheming against Trump, which was not true, while to this day, there remains no meaningful evidence of foreign corruption involving Joe Biden, contrary to Giuliani’s repeated claims.

Soon, Biden nominee Merrick Garland is slated to be confirmed as U.S. Attorney General, which seems likely to help with making progress on the Giuliani investigation one way or another. Garland has also indicated that he plans to prioritize dealing with the ongoing investigation into the January rioting at the U.S. Capitol.