By: Mike Mustiglione
Investigators are looking into former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to convince Trump to remove former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York — which Giuliani led as a crusading US. attorney before his 1994 election as mayor — are probing potential violations of federal lobbying laws in his dealings with the Ukraine government.
On Saturday, Trump publicly defended his attorney and longtime friend after the report emerged that Giuliani was under investigation by federal authorities.
“So now they are after the legendary ‘crime buster’ and greatest Mayor in the history of NYC, Rudy Giuliani,” Trump tweeted on Saturday. “He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer.”
He blamed the “Deep State” for his embattled attorney’s legal woes.
Investigators are looking into former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to convince Trump to remove former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York — which Giuliani led as a crusading US. attorney before his 1994 election as mayor — are probing potential violations of federal lobbying laws in his dealings with the Ukraine government.
In a related development, several days ago it was reported that a pair of businessmen reportedly linked to Giuliani’s Ukraine investigations have been charged with campaign finance violations.
The Florida businessmen are said to have helped Giuliani in his work to spark a Ukraine investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. They were arrested on charges of violating campaign finance laws, court papers explained.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were both charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiracy, making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and falsification of records, according to unsealed indictment.
The two “conspired to circumvent the federal laws against foreign influence by engaging in a scheme to defraud and funnel foreign money to candidates for federal and State office so that the defendants could buy potential influence with candidates, campaigns, and the candidates’ governments,” according to court papers.
Fox News said that Parnas and Fruman served as informal representatives in Ukraine for Giuliani.
“According to the indictment, the duo began holding political fundraising events starting in March 2018 and making “substantial” contributions to candidates and PACs,” according to the New York Post. “The duo made both a $325,000 contribution and a $15,000 contribution to two unnamed independent expenditure committees in May 2018, and falsely reported the contributions came from their LLC Global Energy Producers, a purported liquefied natural gas import-export business incorporated around the same time they made the donations.”
According to the court papers, “Parnas and Fruman, who had no significant prior history of political donations, sought to advance their personal financial interests and the political interests of at least one Ukrainian governmental official with whom they were working.”
