The former personal lawyer of former United States President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani has said evidence collected during an FBI raid on his home as part of a probe into his dealings in Ukraine would prove he and the former president are “innocent”.
The former mayor of New York City told Fox News that the electronic devices seized at his Manhattan residence and a separate office on Wednesday would show he did not violate federal law as he sought to dig up dirt on political rival Joe Biden in Ukraine in 2019 to support Trump.
“The evidence is exculpatory. It proves the president and I and all of us are innocent,” Giuliani said of the Ukraine dealings, for which the former president was later impeached by the US House of Representatives. He was later acquitted in a Senate trial.
On Thursday, Giuliani further accused the Justice Department of serving an “illegal warrant” and said it had “spied” on him by accessing privileged lawyer-client information through the cloud, “blatantly violating my constitutional rights”.
In an interview with WABC, Giuliani took a more personal tack, accusing federal prosecutors of being jealous of his former career as US attorney for the Southern District of New York – the same office that obtained the warrants against him.
Trump also complained earlier on Thursday that the raid was “so unfair”. “Rudy Giuliani is a great patriot. He just loves this country, and they raid his apartment,” Trump told Fox Business.
President Joe Biden, for his part, has defended the integrity of the investigation, telling NBC he had not even been warned a warrant had been obtained.
Giuliani, once a top New York prosecutor before becoming a celebrated mayor of the city, was a personal lawyer for Trump when the president was impeached in December 2019 for allegedly using military aid to pressure the president of Ukraine for his own political gain.
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.
The FBI and the Justice Department have declined to comment on the raids or the investigation.
Giuliani has other pending legal woes. In January, he was sued by a voting machine maker for $1.3bn for spreading claims after the November presidential election that its machines were part of alleged massive voting fraud that caused Trump’s loss.
