Natalie’s Commentary: The only thing that is clear is that Federal investigators carried out a search warrant because the former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was President Trump’s private lawyer. This investigation should be based on Biden’s threat to withhold more than $1 billion in U.S. assistance to the government of Ukraine. At the time it was incumbent upon Mr. Giuliani to get to the bottom of this sordid story.
Judicial Watch had announced in Sept. 26, 2019 that it had filed suit in federal court seeking to force the State Department to release all official U.S. government documents related to the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor, as demanded by former Vice President Joe Biden.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was filed after a video became public of Biden telling a Jan. 23, 2018, conference at the Council on Foreign Relations of his threatening to withhold more than $1 billion in U.S. assistance to the government of Ukraine if officials didn’t fire Shokin before Biden departed the country in six hours.
Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor was at the time conducting a corruption investigation of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that was paying Biden’s son, Hunter, $50,000 a month in consulting fees, according to media reports. There is a lot more to this sordid story associated with the Ukrainian corruption. These were Biden’s words in that video:
“I remember going over and convincing our team that we should be providing loan guarantees, and I went over to Kyiv for, I guess, the 12th or 13th time, and I was supposed to announce there was another $1 billion loan guarantee,” Biden told the conference.
“And I had gotten a commitment from [then-Ukraine President Petro] Poroshenko and [then-Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy] Yatsenyuk that they would take action against [Shokin], and they didn’t.
“So they were walking out to the press conference, and I said, ‘We’re not gonna give you the billion dollars.’ They said, ‘You have no authority, you’re not the president.’ The president said, I said, ‘Call him.’ ~ Natalie
Sources say Giuliani’s electronic devices were confiscated by authorities April 28, 2021, 2:54 PM
Costello said he had previously offered to have Giuliani come in for an interview with federal prosecutors if they would provide a sense of what they were seeking, but that the offer was rejected.
Officials with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.
Giuliani’s work on matters related to Ukraine and his business dealings with two Soviet-born associates has been the subject of an ongoing investigation by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, sources previously told ABC News.
The two businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested and indicted in October 2019 as part of what the government said was a “foreign national donor scheme” that allegedly sought to funnel foreign money to American political candidates.
Parnas and Fruman, along with two others also arrested, allegedly funneled “$1-2 million” from a Russian donor into the U.S. political system between June 2018 and April 2019, according to prosecutors. Both pleaded not guilty.
Parnas and Fruman reportedly assisted Giuliani in his efforts to dig up dirt on the then-Democratic rival of his main client, President Trump. That work eventually became an issue in Trump’s first impeachment.
ABC News reported in December that federal prosecutors in New York were considering pursuing Giuliani’s electronic communications as part of the probe, two sources familiar with the matter said at the time.
News of the search warrant was first reported by The New York Times.
In connection with the probe, federal agents also carried out a search warrant at the home and office of Washington-based attorney Victoria Toensing, who has been a close ally of Giuliani and an occasional adviser to Trump, sources told ABC News.
Agents did not search the premises but only took possession of Toensing’s cellphone, a source said.
“Ms. Toensing is a former federal prosecutor and senior Justice Department official,” said a statement released by Toensing’s law firm, diGenova & Toensing. “She would have been happy to turn over any relevant documents. All they had to do was ask. Ms. Toensing was informed that she is not a target of the investigation.”
In addition to Toensing, sources told ABC News that several other individuals were named in the search warrant served on Giuliani Wednesday morning, many of whom had ties to Ukraine, sources said.