Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani will not face criminal charges in connection with a foreign lobbying investigation made public when federal authorities searched his Manhattan apartment in 2021, prosecutors revealed on Monday.
The announcement came in the form of a single-paragraph letter noting the expiration of the grand jury’s service on the matter.
“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 the letter to U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken.
The prosecutor asked the judge to shut down the privilege review by the special master who has been reviewing the seized files for attorney client privilege for more than a year.
“Accordingly, the Government respectfully requests that the Court terminate the appointment of the Special Master, the Hon. Barbara S. Jones,” the brief letter concludes.
The Southern District of New York declined to comment on the development beyond the public filing.
Giuliani’s attorney Robert Costello did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s request for comment, but he told CNN that the development was a relief for his client.
“It’s wonderful, long-expected news,” Costello told the network. “Unfortunately, Mayor Giuliani had to spend two and a half years to three years with this cloud over his head.”
Before he became the Mayor of New York, Giuliani served as Manhattan U.S. Attorney. That facet of his biography made the search of his home in the city — and by the same prosecutorial office — that he led all the more remarkable. Prosecutors reportedly were investigating whether Giuliani violated foreign lobbying laws in his efforts to oust former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
Months ago in August, sources told NBC News and the New York Times that Giuliani was unlikely to face charges in the matter. The Times said that prosecutors found no smoking gun in the seized devices.
The closure of the federal investigation in Manhattan does not eliminate all criminal or civil liability potentially faced by Giuliani.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) sought his testimony for her ongoing probe of efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. Giuliani’s attorney in that case revealed at a hearing that her office refused to state whether or not he is a “target.”
Earlier this month, a New York State judge in Manhattan amplified Giuliani’s possible civil liability in a multi-billion dollar defamation lawsuit filed by the voting machine company Smartmatic. Having already failed to scuttle multiple counts against him in that case, Giuliani had another one reinstated on Wednesday. He likewise lost a similar motion to dismiss a separate lawsuit filed by Dominion, in connection with his conspiracy theories surrounding former President Donald Trump’s election defeat.
[Image via Saul Loeb from AFP via Getty Images]
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