NEW YORK: Former US president Donald Trump complained on Thursday that an FBI raid on the New York apartment of his ex-personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was "so unfair."
Federal investigators with search warrants combed Giuliani’s Manhattan residence and a separate office on Wednesday, seizing electronic devices as part of a probe into his dealings in Ukraine. "Rudy Giuliani is a great patriot. He just loves this country, and they raid his apartment," Trump told Fox Business.
"It’s, like, so unfair and such a double standard like I don’t think anybody’s ever seen before," he added "It’s very, very unfair. Rudy is a patriot who loves this country, and I don’t know what they’re looking for, what they’re doing."
Giuliani, himself once a top New York prosecutor and then mayor of the city, was a personal lawyer for Trump when the president was impeached in December 2019 for seeking political help from Ukraine. Giuliani spent months trying to help Trump find dirt in Ukraine on election rival Joe Biden and Biden’s son Hunter, during 2018-2020.
But the investigation behind Wednesday’s raid could be honing in on Giuliani doing paid work for Ukrainian businessmen at the same time, violating US laws against unregistered lobbying for foreign entities.
Two Ukrainian-born men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who helped Giuliani in those efforts were arrested in October 2019 and charged with illegally funneling large donations to a pro-Trump fundraising committee.
Giuliani’s son Andrew Giuliani condemned the raid and accused the Justice Department of a political agenda. According to reports, the FBI and the Justice Department’s prosecutor in New York had sought search warrants for Giuliani’s phones last year, but were denied that while Trump remained in office, until January 20.
