(PresidentialInsider.com)- It’s been months since FBI agents raided the home and office of former NYC Mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, and still, they have been unable to gain access to the evidence they collected.
When the FBI seized Guiliani’s phones and computers, his lawyers argued that the devices potentially contained material covered by the attorney-client privilege. However, it was learned this week that Guiliani’s legal team has only asked for the court-appointed monitor to block just three of 2,200 electronic files deemed relevant to the investigation.
Barbara S. Jones, the retired judge appointed to review the seized material, revealed how few files were blocked as part of her progress report to the court released on Tuesday.
As yet, the document review has not been completed and Jones did not indicate in her report when the privilege review will finish up. However, she said Giuliani and his attorneys were supposed to provide results of their analysis of other materials by the end of the week.
In total, the FBI seized sixteen devices as part of the federal investigation into whether Giuliani violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in his dealings with Ukraine.
The FARA claim stems from Giuliani’s 2019-2020 investigation into both Joe Biden’s and his son Hunter’s actions and business deals in Ukraine. In the course of his investigation, Giuliani developed a number of Ukrainian sources, including a member of parliament whom the Trump administration later deemed a Russian agent of disinformation.
Lawyers for Giuliani have said that the data prosecutors seek from these devices might include details on his interactions with Ukrainian individuals and with the former US Ambassador to Ukraine and star Impeachment witness, Maria Yovanovitch.
Giuliani, who has not been charged with any crime, argued that his activities in Ukraine were done in his capacity as Trump’s lawyer and that he “never represented a Ukrainian national or official before the United States government.”
