For a guy who firmly believed he could derail democracy and overturn a presidential election just a few months ago, Rudy Giuliani is having a really rough time of it right now.
The head of former President Donald Trump’s “legal strike force” found himself on the receiving end of a billion-dollar lawsuit from Dominion, the voting system company whose name he trashed in the press after the 2020 Election earlier this year and now, he’s in even hotter water. More hot water? The hottest water? Yes.
Recently, news broke that the Feds raided the Manhattan home and office of the former New York mayor as part of a criminal investigation looking into Giuliani’s ties with Ukraine. Now, we know what they were searching for. Agents seized 10 cellphones and computers from Giuliani’s residences in an effort to see just how deep his connections with foreign officials and agents went during Trump’s presidency. They’re specifically interested in whether Giuliani acted as an unregistered foreign agent for Trump and had a hand in the 2019 ousting of Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Most of the people on that list of names are dignitaries, political leaders, prosecutors, and millionaires from the country — people Giuliani may have also tapped to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, during the election last year.
All of this looks really bad for the unofficial Four Seasons Total Landscaping mascot, but the latest statement Giuliani’s lawyer made to the press only makes the whole thing worse. In an unsealed letter filed by Bob Costello, the attorney claims his client is being treated like “the head of a drug cartel or a terrorist” as part of a coordinated attack meant to permanently damage Giuliani’s reputation and that of his most famous client, Donald Trump.
“Unfortunately for Giuliani, and even more unfortunately for the attorney-client privilege and executive deliberation privilege, and the public’s perception that those privileges are real, the SDNY simply chose to treat a distinguished lawyer as if he was the head of a drug cartel or a terrorist, in order to create maximum prejudicial coverage of both Giuliani, and his most well-known client—the former President of the United States,” the letter reads. “The search of an attorney’s office should be done rarely and only under extraordinary circumstances. Otherwise, such high profile and heavily publicized searches such as those of President Trump’s attorneys will just continue to erode and finally extinguish citizen reliance that communications for legal advice are really seriously protected.”
It seems that Giuliani’s biggest gripe with the raid is the information that may be stored on his iCloud account — documents and communications he believes should fall under attorney-client privilege. Whether this means Trump did have a hand in Giuliani’s dealings with Ukraine or not isn’t clear, but it’s a pretty good bet that neither man is happy that the Feds have their hands on those communications from last year.
Now, if the Department of Justice could also figure out the thinking behind owning that many cellphones, we’ll consider this case closed.
(Via The Daily Beast)