WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2021) A US Federal judge denied a request by Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to have his seized electronic devices returned or destroyed, the Wall Street Journal reported.
On April 28, the FBI raided the homes of Giuliani and his colleague Victoria Toensing and seized their cell phones and computers to assist in ongoing investigations, prompting the two to file objections against a review of the content on the devices. In May, a special master was appointed to review whether any material seized by the FBI at Giuliani's home and office was protected under the attorney-client privilege.
The US federal judge's decision will allow prosecutors to continue their review of Giuliani's communications with former Ukrainian officials to determine whether he was in violation of foreign lobbying rules in an effort to remove a US ambassador from Kiev, the report said on Friday.
The judge's decision has also excluded from the special master's review all documents that predate 2018, the report said.
The federal prosecutors are currently probing whether Giuliani had actually pushed the ouster of the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, on behalf of Ukrainian officials to obtain information on President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Giuliani has said the only device the FBI refused to take despite being repeatedly offered by him contains information of crimes committed by Hunter Biden.
