Justice Department political leaders repeatedly stymied efforts by federal prosecutors in Manhattan to obtain a search warrant last year for the digital records of Rudy Giuliani, former president Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, frustrating career government attorneys and effectively leaving the decision to the incoming Biden administration, people familiar with the matter said.
The move, first reported Wednesday by CNN, ultimately may have a limited impact on the ongoing federal investigation of Giuliani, as officials said prosecutors could simply renew their request. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a case that remains politically sensitive.
Still, the passage of time is unhelpful to any investigation, as documents could be destroyed and witnesses’ memories may fade. And the matter will present a critical first test for President Biden’s Justice Department, where officials are trying to separate the institution from political matters and restore public faith that it will enforce the law impartially.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the Manhattan US attorney’s office declined to comment. Robert Costello, an attorney for Giuliani, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but he told CNN he had not been contacted by federal prosecutors and did not believe his client had done anything wrong.
Giuliani has rigorously defended his activities as above board.
The investigation came to light in October 2019 after federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged two of Giuliani’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, with a scheme to funnel foreign money to US politicians while trying to influence US-Ukraine relations.
Parnas and Fruman had been working with Giuliani to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden. Separately, Giuliani was paid $500,000 for consulting work by a company Parnas cofounded, Fraud Guarantee, that remains a focus of federal prosecutors.
People familiar with Giuliani’s case have said previously that investigators were scrutinizing the former New York mayor’s consulting business and examining donations made to America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC set up by his advisers and allies after the 2016 election, as well as its affiliated nonprofit. Investigators were looking for evidence of several possible crimes, including foreign lobbying registration violations, destruction or alteration of documents, aiding and abetting federal crimes, and foreign contributions to US candidates, according to people familiar with the matter.
By summer 2020, prosecutors decided they had probable cause to get a warrant to examine Giuliani’s communications, people familiar with the matter said. Mindful they were seeking the communications of a lawyer in a politically sensitive case, Manhattan prosecutors approached leaders at the Justice Department in D.C. seeking approval to move forward. They were rebuffed, people familiar with the matter said, though they offered varying explanations as to why.
One person familiar with the matter said the request was considered to have come too close to the presidential election, noting that Justice Department policies and tradition prohibit taking public steps in a case with potential electoral ramifications.
Others, though, said the prosecutors first approached senior officials at a time when those policies do not normally apply, and that Justice Department officials expressed other objections.
The case sat for months, though after November’s election, prosecutors in Manhattan renewed their bid for a search warrant, people familiar with the matter said. Officials in the deputy attorney general’s office again turned them down, the people said.
One person said officials harbored concerns about the strength of the evidence, and that the renewed request was coming during Trump’s bid to challenge the election results. Giuliani played a key role in that effort.
Career Justice Department officials, though, felt their probable cause for a search warrant was strong, people familiar with the matter said. They noted that even amid Trump’s post-election challenges, department leaders approved issuing a subpoena and taking other steps in another politically sensitive investigation: that of Biden’s son Hunter.
The extent to which Giuliani faces serious legal jeopardy remains unclear; people familiar with the matter cautioned that just because investigators wanted to search his devices is not by itself an indication he will be charged with a crime. Giuliani was notably not among those who Trump pardoned before leaving office, despite widespread speculation that the outgoing president might do so.
The investigation represents a remarkable downfall for a former US attorney who was once dubbed ’'America’s mayor’' and widely praised for his leadership of New York City in the wake of 9/11. In the 1980s, Giuliani had led the same federal prosecutor’s office now leading the investigation into his conduct.
Giuliani once fancied himself a possible secretary of state for Trump, and he served as the president’s personal lawyer during the special counsel investigation into possible coordination between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia to influence that year’s election. All the while, he maintained a lucrative consulting and legal practice while working for the president, taking on clients from all over the world while wielding considerable influence inside the US government.
His eclectic efforts raised some alarm inside Trump’s administration. At one point, then-Attorney General William P. Barr warned Trump that Giuliani had become a liability. But Trump never distanced himself, even as Giuliani’s legal woes seemed to intensify and questions mounted about possible conflicts between his work for the president and his work for foreigners.
For his part, Giuliani has insisted he kept the two roles separate.
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Justice Department leaders repeatedly stymied requests for search of Giuliani’s records - The Boston Globe
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