“In my business, we would call that total victory,” exulted Robert Costello, lawyer for Rudy Giuliani, after federal prosecutors in Manhattan gave up on Monday pursuing criminal charges against the former mayor of New York City over allegations that he should have registered as a foreign agent related to his dealings with persons in Ukraine.
Costello added, “We appreciate what the U.S. attorney’s [office] has done. We only wish they had done it a lot sooner.”
It is said the “wheels of justice” can move quite slowly, and they certainly did in this case. In April 2021, a raid was conducted on Giuliani’s private residence and law office, using warrants granted following a grand jury investigation. The raid netted 16 of Giuliani’s electronic devices, such as phones and laptops, which federal investigators examined to determine if he had violated the federal law that covers lobbying on behalf of foreign countries or entities.
Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine raised questions because some Ukrainians wanted him to use his clout to pressure President Donald Trump. Giuliani had been in Ukraine encouraging them to investigate the business dealings of Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, who was then running for president against Trump.
Hunter was a director of a company in Ukraine under investigation by the Ukrainian government, but the Ukrainian prosecutor who was looking into that case was fired after then-Vice President Joe Biden told Ukrainian authorities that they would not get a $1 billion dollar loan guarantee from the United States if they did not axe the prosecutor investigating his son.
“Based on information currently available to the Government, criminal charges [against Giuliani] are not forthcoming,” federal prosecutors said. Giuliani had insisted on his innocence throughout the investigation.
His apparent exoneration does not mean that the raid served no purpose for the Biden administration. After all, since Biden has been president and controlled the Justice Department, Trump and his associates — such as Giuliani — have faced multiple investigations, raids, and charges. While the general public probably had no idea what the Giuliani raid was about, many no doubt figured that the former New York mayor must have done something wrong.
The timing of this week’s announcement — that Giuliani will not be charged with anything — is certainly interesting. As his lawyer said, “We only wish they had done it a lot sooner.”
Such as the week before the midterms, rather than one week after the midterms, perhaps?
After all, does it really take more than 18 months to determine that there is nothing on Giuliani’s laptops and phones to indicate that he has committed a crime? On the other hand, the FBI “advised” Facebook not to spread the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop — on the eve of the 2020 presidential election.
The administration’s use of the criminal justice system for political purposes is not unique, but it is certainly the most prolific.
The Democrats prevailed over the Republicans in several close races in the just-completed midterm elections. Could part of the reason for keeping the Republicans from gaining even more seats be all of these politicized criminal cases, including the raid on President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago? Announcing before the midterms that Trump associate Giuliani was not going to be charged, rather than just after, might have made a difference in some congressional contests across the country.
Given that, does anyone really believe that the timing was not political?
