When his attorney made a court filing ago to convince a judge that Rudy Giuliani’s electronic devices contain confidential information such as discussions with clients, the documents that wound up in the public record shed new light on the full scale of unsavory characters Rudy has been rubbing elbows with and also point to a larger conspiracy which involves the Russian mafia.
Giuliani’s attorney, Robert J. Costello, notes that the former New York City mayor should never have been raided by the FBI late last month, the New York Times reports:
“In a 17-page letter to the judge who authorized the searches, Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers argued that it would have been more appropriate — and less invasive — for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan to seek information through a subpoena, which, unlike a warrant, would have given him an opportunity to review the documents and respond.
“The defense lawyers wrote that prosecutors ‘simply chose to treat a distinguished lawyer as if he was the head of a drug cartel or a terrorist, in order to create maximum prejudicial coverage of both Giuliani and his most well-known client — the former president of the United States.'”
Though Rudy may not be the head of a drug cartel, it seems he travels in the same circles and does business with members of organized criminal organizations that do indeed traffic in narcotics, engage in sexual trafficking of young girls, and have people killed for daring to report on their illegal activities.
At one point in the court documents that became public, there’s a tantalizing tidbit that refers to Dmitro Firtash, a Ukrainian businessman with extensive ties to Russian organized crime, legal analyst Marcy Wheeler pointed out on Twitter. It also mentions possible associates of Giuliani who worked in the United States as unregistered foreign agents of Firtash:
Firtash, it should be added, gave a $1 million loan to Lev Parnas, who was working for Giuliani at the time in an attempt to dig up dirt on the Biden family:
“A billionaire with alleged ties to the Russian mob, Firtash is facing bribery-related charges in the U.S. and fighting extradition from Vienna. He once attempted to buy and redevelop the famous Drake Hotel in New York with the now-incarcerated Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman. And he’s seen by Ukrainian anti-corruption activists and Western governments as a corrupt instrument of Russia.”
So former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney — the man who was actively working to sabotage Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign — was also doing business with a man who has deep ties to the Kremlin and the Russian mob.
The mention of Firtash in the court filings is also yet another connection that Trump has to Russia, despite his protestations that he has never done business with Russian entities or sought assistance from the Russian government.
If nothing else, the ongoing legal case against Giuliani could give us greater insight into just how deeply Donald Trump is tied to Russia, the Kremlin, and Russian organized crime. It may also wind up leading to criminal charges against the former president, his children, and members of the Trump Organization.