Giuliani Probe Reportedly Focuses on Ex-Trump Lawyer's '2019 Plan to Lobby Ukraine Interests in US'

Federal prosecutors' investigation into Rudy Giuliani's dealings in Ukraine includes probing whether the former New York City mayor lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of Ukrainian figures. Giuliani denies any wrongdoing, arguing that his work in Ukraine was meant to benefit only one person, namely, Donald Trump.

Over the past few days, the high-profile federal probe of ex-New York City mayor and Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has reportedly focused on evidence pertaining to his alleged plan in 2019 to promote Ukraine's interests in the US.

The Guardian quoted unnamed sources as saying that in the spring of 2019, three Ukrainian government prosecutors agreed to award hefty contracts to Giuliani and two other US attorneys in a bid to obtain political and personal influence in the Trump administration.

Investigators earlier suggested Giuliani and attorneys Victoria Toensing and Joe DiGenova apparently violated federal transparency laws that require Americans working for foreign governments to register as foreign agents with the US Justice Department and fully disclose the details of each such action they undertook on behalf of the said foreign interests.

Rudy Giuliani and his son Andrew.

© Photo : Twitter / @AndrewHGiuliani

In the course of the probe, federal prosecutors compiled a list of more than 20 specific acts by Giuliani, Toesning, and DiGenova to advance the personal and political interests of an array of prosecutors and political factions in Ukraine with which Giuliani was aligned, according to the sources.

The insiders argued that federal prosecutors consider each one of those acts important evidence of a possible violation of the law. One of the sources referred to a previously undisclosed episode, in which the investigators foiled plans by one Ukrainian prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, that were approved by Giuliani.

The plans stipulated Ukrainian prosecutors along with the ex-New York City mayor announcing and promoting an investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine in 2019 to help bolster Trump's chances of re-election in the November 2020 vote.

Giuliani Investigation

Giuliani has been accused (but not yet charged) of violating US foreign lobbying laws by failing to notify authorities that he represented the interests of Ukrainian officials.

The former New York mayor denies that he did anything wrong, and has expressed his frustration over the FBI's apparent lack of interest in Hunter Biden's purported laptop amid claims that the president's son engaged in improper and potentially illegal activity to lobby a Ukrainian gas company's interests with his father Joe Biden during the Obama presidency.

Last year, the New York Post disclosed a trove of damning files purportedly from Hunter Biden's computer, also dubbed the "laptop from hell".

The computer contained emails suggesting that the younger Biden was asked by one of the top executives on the board of the Ukrainian gas firm Burisma, in which he also held a seat, to utilise his connections for the benefit of the company.

Another email, seemingly showed adviser to Burisma's board Vadym Pozharskyi thanking Hunter for organising a meeting with his father, then US Vice President Joe Biden. The email cast doubt on Joe Biden's claims of non-involvement in the overseas business affairs of his son.

The Biden-Ukraine allegations and Trump's claims about systemic fraud in the 2020 election were central to Democratic lawmakers' impeachment proceedings against him in 2019 and early 2021.

In the first impeachment, Trump was accused of using his office to dig up dirt on a potential rival. In the second, he was charged with inciting the 6 January riots at the Capitol. However, Trump managed to avoid being convicted in the Senate on both occasions, frustrating Democrats' efforts to have him permanently banned from politics.