NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors Monday said former Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani would not face criminal charges in a foreign lobbying investigation.
“The Government writes to notify the Court that the grand jury investigation that led to the issuance of the above-referenced warrants has concluded, and that based on information currently available to the Government, criminal charges are not forthcoming,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebekah Donaleski wrote in a filing.
The New York Daily News reported in August that the feds had returned the former New York City mayor’s seized cellphones, all but confirming they wouldn’t be used as evidence at a trial. They took the devices in an April 2021 raid of his Midtown law office and Upper East Side apartment.
The feds started probing Giuliani in 2019 after the arrests of his business associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman for a sweeping campaign finance scheme that overlapped with ex-President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt on Joe Biden.
Giuliani previously admitted to questioning Ukraine’s former prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko about Biden, but denied representing the Ukrainian official in stateside lobbying efforts. To do so without registering as a foreign agent is a crime.
Giuliani could not be reached for comment.
On Twitter, he celebrated the development, writing, “COMPLETE & TOTAL VINDICATION.”
His lawyer Bob Costello said he was glad prosecutors made clear their decision not to charge Giuliani in a public filing.
“They recognized that this is a case of national attention with a notorious figure, Mayor Giuliani, so they thought that this was appropriate,” Costello told the Daily News. “The only problem is that it took as long as it did.”
Prosecutors also asked Manhattan Federal Court Judge Paul Oetken to terminate the special master overseeing Giuliani’s seized files for attorney-client privilege, Barbara Jones.
Retired Judge Jones will turn to the Manhattan civil case against the Trump Organization. She was appointed Monday to oversee business dealings at the former president’s real estate company while the case plays out.
Spokesman for the Southern District of New York Nick Biase declined to comment.
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