Feds raided Giuliani's home, office looking for documents
Federal agents raided Rudy Giuliani's home and office in 2021 because they suspected the former New York City mayor had sought the removal of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine partly because of the prospect of a financial reward from a Ukrainian official, according to documents made public Tuesday.
The documents provide new detail on the concluded investigation into Giuliani's dealings with Ukrainian figures in the run up to the 2020 presidential election. Giuliani, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was not charged with a crime as a result of the inquiry.
In a search warrant application, federal agents seeking to seize Giuliani's cell phones, laptop and other electronic devices raised the possibility that he and three other people could be charged with acting as unregistered foreign agents.
The documents, unsealed at the request of The New York Times, confirmed past news reports that federal prosecutors in Manhattan were examining whether Giuliani had gotten anything of value in return for lobbying the Trump administration to fire then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
The warrant application said Giuliani had been “incentivized” to lobby for the ambassador's removal in two ways.
First, it said, the prosecutor general in Ukraine who wanted the ambassador fired, Yuriy Lutsenko, had offered to hire Giuliani to lobby the Trump administration for help recovering Ukrainian assets he believed had been misappropriated by a U.S. investment firm.
“Giuliani was interested in being engaged to do that work, and proposed a retainer with a $200,000 upfront payment,” the warrant application said. “Thus, it appears that Giuliani took steps to cause the firing of the Ambassador to prove ... what he could achieve.”
Secondly, the application said, Giuliani wanted Lutsenko's help launching an investigation that might hurt Trump's Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
Prosecutors noted that the proposed $200,000 retainer was never paid, but federal agents wrote that they believed Giuliani's worsening finances may have motivated him to consider the deal.
In their search warrant application, they cited bank records and other information showing he'd gone from having about $1.2 million in the bank and $40,000 in credit card debt in January 2018 to about $288,000 in cash and $110,000 credit debt in February 2019.
Giuliani has said he also never lobbied the Trump administration on Lutsenko's behalf. A message seeking comment was left Tuesday with Giuliani's spokesperson.