A team of federal police officers carried out a search and seizure on Wednesday (28) in the apartment of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, personal lawyer for former President Donald Trump.
According to the New York Times, the first to report on Wednesday’s operation, officers even seized electronic devices that belonged to Giuliani and were in his Manhattan apartment.
The former New York mayor is under investigation for his ties to the Ukrainian government and oligarchs, in a case indirectly linked to the first impeachment case opened against Trump – and of which he was acquitted by the Senate American early 2020.
According to the investigation, Giuliani allegedly lobbied the United States government at the behest of Kiev and businessmen from that Eastern European country.
US law declares that it is a crime to try to influence the government by order of a foreign nation without notifying the Justice Department in advance – which Giuliani did not do.
In return, Ukrainian oligarchs and officials have reportedly vowed to seek compromising information on then-leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden – who ended up winning the election against Trump in November last year, thus preventing the re-election of the Republican. .
It was exactly Trump’s pressure on then-Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky to investigate Biden, who started the first impeachment process against him.
In addition, agents also want to know if Giuliani allegedly received bribes from Ukrainian businessmen for acting as some sort of informal lobbyist in the White House.
Also according to the New York Times, the prosecutors in charge of the case against the former New York mayor came to assess the possibility of carrying out the search action in the second half of 2020 – while Trump was still president, therefore – but the he idea was vetoed. by the top of the Ministry of Justice.