Federal prosecutors in New York seized email account evidence believed to belong to the former prosecutor general of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko, and two other Ukrainians as part of their investigation into whether Rudy Giuliani violated U.S. laws against covert foreign lobbying, a partially redacted court filing shows.
This was reported by Bloomberg.
The others whose communications were seized were Roman Nasirov, the former head of the Ukrainian Fiscal Service, and Alexander Levin, a Ukrainian American businessman and supporter of former President Donald Trump, according to a Tuesday filing by Joseph Bondy, a lawyer for Lev Parnas, a Giuliani associate facing campaign finance and other charges.
The names of the Ukrainians were redacted, but the redaction was done in such a way that the names became visible when the text was copied and pasted into a word processing document.
Read alsoFBI raids ex-Trump lawyer's home as part of probe into dealings with Ukraine – mediaAccording to the filing, the searches of the Ukrainians were described by the government in a May 14 letter to Bondy, who argued that evidence along with material seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in April 28 raids on Giuliani's home and office would likely exonerate his client.
Bondy declined to comment. A spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office also declined to comment. Bob Costello, a lawyer for Giuliani, didn't respond to a request for comment.
At the same time, Reuters reported that Lutsenko said in a message on Tuesday "I have no news," "I did not communicate with Giuliani either by phone or by mail."
Prosecutors have been examining whether Giuliani violated lobbying laws by acting as an unregistered foreign agent while working for Trump.
Ukraine-born Lev Parnas and Belarus-born Igor Fruman are called Giuliani's associates. According to media reports, they organized the communication of former prosecutors general of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin and Yuriy Lutsenko, with Giuliani. At these meetings, Lutsenko and Shokin "leaked" dirt on Joe Biden to Giuliani.
Lutsenko did meet with Giuliani in New York. During these meetings, they exchanged views on the role of the then U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch who "took a destructive position in Ukraine." Giuliani was interested in whether Ukraine could initiate a case against former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. Giuliani was also interested in the Burisma case.
Read alsoGiuliani's "quid pro quo" attempt threatened Ukraine's national security, ex-Zelensky adviser saysIn early 2020, the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress released Parnas' correspondence with a number of Ukrainian politicians and officials. In this correspondence, Lutsenko insisted on Yovanovitch's recall from Ukraine. He complained to Parnas that "the ambassador openly called for the dismissal of the head of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO)," "the ambassador pointed out the poor selection of the Supreme Court judges."
Giuliani case
- In November 2019, a probe was launched against Giuliani for being an unregistered foreign agent and cooperation with Fruman and Parnas. They helped Giuliani to search for incriminating evidence on Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, and ran a gas business in Ukraine.
- U.S. prosecutors are mainly interested in who and how in Ukraine helped Giuliani to search for incriminating evidence on Trump's political opponents during the recent presidential campaign, primarily against incumbent President Joe Biden.
