Nov. 14 (UPI) — Federal prosecutors are not filing any charges against Rudy Giuliani following an investigation into his activities in Ukraine.
A federal attorney in New York opened an investigation into the former mayor in 2019 for possibly violating foreign lobbying laws. Giuliani was alleged to have been involved in having Marie Yovanovitch removed from her role as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. He was also believed to have pushed Ukrainian officials to investigate Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden who was former President Donald Trump’s chief political opponent in 2020.
Federal foreign lobbying laws require a person lobbying for a foreign government to register as a lobbyist.
The notice from U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said the investigation has concluded.
“Based on information currently available to the Government, criminal charges are not forthcoming,” the notice said.
The FBI raided Giuliani’s residence in New York City, as well as his office in April 2021. They seized 18 electronic devices and later acknowledged they had accessed Giuliani’s iCloud account in 2019.
Giuliani was serving as the attorney to former President Donald Trump when the investigation opened. He argued that his activities in Ukraine were part of his duties as Trump’s attorney, not as a lobbyist, and he never represented himself as a, “Ukrainian national or official before the United States government.”
“It’s wonderful, long-expected news,” said Robert Costello, an attorney for Giuliani. “Unfortunately, Mayor Giuliani had to spend two and a half years to three years with this cloud over his head.”
Giuliani is still under criminal investigation by a grand jury in Georgia that is investigating Trump and his allies’ attempts to overturn election results in the state. Giuliani appeared in front of the grand jury in August.
Dominion Voting Systems still has an active lawsuit against Giuliani after he falsely accused the company of committing fraud in the 2020 election. It is also suing former Trump attorney Sidney Powell. Dominion is seeking $1.3 billion from Powell and Giuliani separately for libel.
“Although [Giuliani] was unwilling to make false election fraud claims about Dominion and its voting machines in a court of law because he knew those allegations are false, he and his allies manufactured and disseminated the ‘Big Lie,’ which foreseeably went viral and deceived millions of people into believing that Dominion had stolen their votes and fixed the election,” the filing states.
