Giuliani calls raid on his NYC home 'illegal and unconstitutional', says FBI turned DOWN Hunter Biden hard-drives, then accuses Biden family of breaking the law for the past 30 years
Rudy Giuliani has claimed that the search warrant authorizing the raid on his Manhattan home was 'illegal' and 'unconstitutional', claiming that he had offered to hand over his electronic devices willingly for the past two years, and insisting that he had never worked for a foreign national.
Giuliani's home was surrounded by FBI agents at 6am on Wednesday morning, as part of an investigation into his dealings in Ukraine.
Giuliani, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and former mayor of NYC, told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday night that there was no legal justification for the raid.
'The only way you can get a search warrant is if you can get that evidence someone will destroy evidence,' said Giuliani.
Rudy Giuliani on Thursday night appeared on Fox News to discuss the raid on his home
Giuliani's apartment was raided on Wednesday: the media is seen waiting outside
He said that he had been offering his electronic devices for two years, and claimed that the government had 'spied on me' before, through the Cloud.
'I could have destroyed the evidence years ago. I didn't destroy the evidence because the evidence is exculpatory. It proves that the the president and I are innocent,' he said.
They seized 'eight electronic devices of mine and two of someone else's,' he said.
'There is no justification for that warrant,' Giuliani continued.
'It's an illegal, unconstitutional warrant.'
The warrants included an allegation that Giuliani failed to register as a foreign agent, a violation of lobbying laws.
Prior to the 2020 presidential election, Giuliani led an effort to dig up dirt on then-Democratic contender Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine.
Rudy Giuliani's Upper East Side home was raided at 6am on Wednesday
Giuliani insisted on Carlson's show that he had never worked for any foreign nationals, and had a line in all his contracts insisting he would only work for U.S. citizens.
'I never, ever represented a foreign national,' said Giuliani, who founded management consultancy and security firm Giuliani Partners in 2002, on stepping down as mayor.
Giuliani accused agents of ignoring Hunter Biden's hard drives during their search - hard drives which contained the image above
'I have in my contracts that I didn't want to,' he said.
He worked on behalf of a wide range of foreign clients, from the Qatari government in 2007, for whom he acted as a security consultant, to a $4.3 million security contract with Mexico City, advising them on their policing and public safety.
Giuliani said that investigators would not tell him what exactly they were looking in to.
'They won't explain what they are looking into for the last two years,' he said.
'They won't address it. They say come in and discuss your entire life.'
And he expressed bemusement that the 'very professional' agents were not interested in taking Hunter Biden's hard drive with them.
'I said don't you want these?' Giuliani recalled.
'They said what are they? I said they are Hunter Biden's hard drives.'
The agents said they did not want them.
'I said, are you sure? One last time. They said no.'
Giuliani said that Hunter Biden's hard drives 'fall in the scope of the subpoena'.
He said the hard drive contained evidence of '30 years of the Biden crime family'.
Giuliani added: 'They were also completely content to rely on my word. They could have been Donald Trump's. They could have been Vladimir Putin's.'
Giuliani concluded: 'I am so offended by the things they have said about me.'
Earlier on Thursday, Giuliani had told a caller to his radio show that he was outraged at the raid, and described those behind it as 'crooks' jealous of his career.
'I've been fighting crooks all my life,' he said.
Giuliani, seen at a Trump rally on January 6, ahead of the riot, had his home raided Wednesday
Giuliani pictured in June 1987, when he was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Giuliani made his name in the 1980s taking down the mob (pictured, with FBI Director William Webster)
'I'm fighting crooks again. The only tragedy of it is they have titles from the government.
'But they're a disgrace! They are a complete disgrace to the office that I distinguished! They didn't.'
Giuliani then detailed his illustrious career, telling how he expelled 'five Nazis' from the United States and talking about his infamous mob-busting years in the 1980s, when he brought down the 'Five Families' - New York's main mafia clans.
'Did they get threatened with getting killed by the mafia? The Colombian cartel wanting to cut my throat?
'What have they done? Noting except come after me, six-o-clock in the morning, with a piece of nonsense. No wonder they're jealous!
'It's just ridiculous.'
The comments are Giuliani's first on the raid, aside from a written statement released via his lawyer on Wednesday.
Federal investigators executed a search warrant Wednesday on Rudy Giuliani's New York City apartment and office, seizing electronic devices
Rudy Giuliani's apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan
Rudy Giuliani's Park Avenue office was also raided by federal investigators
Giuliani arrives at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in 2016
Donald Trump on Thursday slammed the FBI raid on 'patriot' Giuliani's Manhattan apartment, saying it is 'very unfair'.
The former president spoke out to defend his former personal attorney, telling Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo: 'Rudy Giuliani is a great patriot. He just loves this country, and they raid his apartment.
'It's like so unfair and...it's like a double standard like I don't think anybody's ever seen before. It's very, very unfair. Rudy is a patriot who loves this country.'
Joe Biden later said he found out about the raid 'when the rest of the world learned about it', adding: 'I had no idea this was underway.'
The raid signals a major escalation of the Justice Department's investigation into any possible violation of federal lobbying laws and the business dealings of Giuliani.
Giuliani, once celebrated for his handling of the 9/11 terror attacks while New York City mayor, has been under federal scrutiny for several years over his ties to Ukraine. The dual searches sent the strongest signal yet that he could eventually face federal charges.
Giuliani's lawyer Robert Costello said the warrants involved an allegation that Giuliani failed to register as a foreign agent and that investigative documents mentioned John Solomon, a frequent Fox News commentator with close ties to Giuliani.
Solomon pushed baseless or unsubstantiated allegations involving Ukraine and Biden during the 2020 election. His former employer, The Hill, published a review last year of some of his columns and determined they were lacking in context and missing key disclosures.
Trump said on Thursday: 'I don't know what they're looking for or what they're doing.
'They say it had to do with filings of various papers and lobbying files. Well, did Hunter [Biden] file? Did [President] Biden file? Because they did a lot of work with other countries. To the best of everyone's knowledge, they didn't file.
'It's a very, very unfair situation.'
He added: 'It is so terrible when you see the things going on in our country with the corruption and the problems and then they go after Rudy Giuliani. It's very said, actually.'
He ended the interview by telling Bartiromo: 'You're going after the Rudy Giuliani's of the world when you have rapists and murderers coming in through the border.'
The raid may have been spurred by a voicemail where the former mayor of New York City hinted at having a burner phone.
Federal investigators may have been alerted over a November 2019 message Giuliani left his ex associate Lev Parnas in November 2019.
Giuliani is said to have been recorded saying: 'Joe, it's Rudy Giuliani.
'I'm calling, uh, to see if we can talk either about or with Lev. I have my lawyer with me, but you can call me back at [REDACTED]. That's [REDACTED].'
Giuliani then adds: 'That's the soon to be gotten rid of number.'
Joseph Bondy, the attorney for Parnas, filed a motion in court in December that included a transcript of the voicemail message that the ex-mayor left him.
A link of the transcript was found on Wednesday by Newsweek.
No comments: