Former President Donald Trump’s Justice Department blocked an investigation into Rudolph Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine by delaying a search warrant for Giuliani’s electronic records. Manhattan prosecutors had been looking to launch an investigation to examine Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine.
Giuliani had dealings with high-profile Ukrainians, such as Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, who claimed to have damaging information about President Joe Biden‘s family, specifically Hunter Biden. Despite suspicion surrounding Giuliani’s actions, Giuliani’s lawyer Robert Costello said on Wednesday that he would not be responding to “media speculation.”
The fact that Trump was one of Giuliani’s clients complicates matters further. A search warrant on Giuliani could allow prosecutors to potentially gain access to confidential client information. Thus, when prosecutors and F.B.I. agents began looking into Giuliani’s dealings last summer, they alerted the Justice Department in order to obtain a search warrant for the former mayor’s record.
As the country was on the verge of the 2020 presidential election, some Justice Department officials were reluctant to grant the Manhattan prosecutors’ request, as the results of the investigation could affect the upcoming election. Many experts see this an effort of the Trump DOJ to protect the president during the presidential campaign.
