DOCUMENTS SOUGHT
Trump ally Rudy Giuliani subpoenaed by federal prosecutors — source
Jan 9 (Reuters) — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who helped to amplify former President Donald Trump’s false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors seeking documents about payments he received from Trump or his presidential campaign, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The subpoena, which was issued in November, also asks Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal attorney, to provide testimony, said the person, who declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter.
The nature of the inquiry by the US attorney in Washington DC, which began before Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed to oversee investigations into Trump, remains largely under wraps.
“Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani is without a doubt one of the greatest prosecutors in American history, and I challenge anyone to argue with me otherwise,” a spokesperson for Giuliani said in a Twitter direct message to a Reuters reporter on Monday night.
A spokesperson for the US Attorney for the District of Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The source said the subpoena sought, among other matters, copies of any retainer agreements between Trump and Giuliani, or the Trump campaign and Giuliani, and records of payments and who made those payments.
In December, a District of Columbia attorney ethics committee said Giuliani violated at least one attorney ethics rule in his work on a failed lawsuit by Trump challenging the 2020 election results.
Giuliani’s New York state law licence was suspended in June 2021 after a state appeals court found he had made “demonstrably false and misleading” statements that widespread voter fraud undermined the 2020 election won by Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; writing by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Ross Colvin and Christopher Cushing)
Become an Insider
The good thing about the litigious system in the US is that it takes no prisoners and it does not differentiate between villain an heroes. Giuliani was a hero and a villain during his tenure as Mayor of New York. Others praised his crime fighting tactics and others viewed them as racial profiling. He went into the position as a celebrated prosecutor by the mainstream media in the US. The American view their democratic system as sacrosanct and those who dare amount an assault on it irrespective of status or station in their lives they will throw the book on you
Rudi Giuliani joined those who wanted to mutilate and vandalise the American electoral system and democracy and he is going to pay and may spend the rest of his life in orange overalls and so may Trump. They are not looking only at his criminal conduct but ethical conduct as a lawyer. The Brazilians have taken a leaf out of the American attitude to thugs who vandalise democracy and they are not giving a quarter to them. We have a lot to learn on what is the role of the institutional system of democracy in its defence. The status of a person counts for nothing nor their riches. Even a former President must be arraigned as Trump would learn.
For this, the Americans have earned the right to boast about their democracy and to hold it as standard for all democracies. We cannot say the same about ours that allows massiv theft of public resources and turn a blind eye to anarchy to protect the ANC and Zuma.