There are very few people that have been connected to the Trump administration over the past four years that managed to walk away from that trainwreck unscathed by some form of an investigation or another at some point or another through the term, Literally, I’m having trouble coming up with a single soul at the moment.
However, of course, some were more “important” to investigators than others. According to reports from CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times career federal prosecutors in Manhattan have long had an eye out for Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. But, unsurprisingly, when prosecutors attempted to thoroughly conduct their investigation, they were only met with pushback from Trump-appointed officials in the Department of Justice.
The reports claim that prosecutors made multiple attempts last year to get permission to search Rudy Giuliani’s electronic records and they were turned down by senior officials in the Justice Department every time. Several reasons were cited by the Trump-appointed DOJ officials, including the unique issues that would allegedly be involved in securing a search warrant for the then president’s personal attorney.
Trump’s personal lawyer and friend has been under investigation since 2019, when Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two of his close associates, were arrested on campaign finance charges. Manhattan prosecutors felt confident that they had enough probable cause to secure a warrant to search Rudy’s communications and were fairly certain that once they did they would find evidence of a crime, according to reports from the Post and the Times. However, a warrant to search a lawyer in general, much less the lawyer of the president, requires permission from Washington — something that Manhattan prosecutors weren’t able to get. The Post reports that DOJ officials turned them down every time, with “varying explanations as to why.”
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“While career Justice Department officials in Washington largely supported the search warrant, senior officials raised concerns that the warrant would be issued too close to the election,” the Times report reads. “The Manhattan prosecutors noted to officials in Washington that they initially raised the idea in the summer, before the 60-day cutoff,” though prosecutors tried again after the election and were ultimately met with the same denial as officials cited Trump and Giuliani’s efforts to contest Biden’s win.
According to the Post career DOJ officials “noted that even amid Trump’s post-election challenges, department leaders approved issuing a subpoena and taking other steps in another politically sensitive investigation: that of Biden’s son Hunter.”
“Ultimately, senior officials in Washington proposed delaying a decision on the subpoena until the Biden administration took over,” the Times report reads. “It is unclear whether the prosecutors have obtained a warrant since Mr. Biden was sworn in.”
Both the Department of Justice as well as the Manhattan DA’s office have declined to comment on the reports. Giuliani’s own lawyer, Robert Costello, told CNN that no outreach has been made to his client by federal prosecutors and told the Times that he would not comment “on media speculation.”
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
