Trump lawyer Giuliani says US sleuths seized iCloud material

NEW YORK • Lawyer and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani says federal investigators seized material from his iCloud while he was representing then President Donald Trump during his impeachment. Mr Giuliani appeared on Fox News a day after federal agents raided his Manhattan home and office. FBI agents seized his phone and other electronic devices.

"The prosecutors in the Justice Department spied on me," Mr Giuliani said on Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson's show. "These are tactics only known in a dictatorship - where you seize a lawyer's records in the middle of his representation."

Manhattan federal prosecutors have been investigating Mr Giuliani in connection with his lobbying work in Ukraine in 2019. The focus of the probe is on his efforts to oust the then US Ambassador to Ukraine, Ms Marie Yovanovitch, according to The New York Times.

The prosecutors' search on Wednesday came months after they had initially sought approval for a search warrant for Mr Giuliani's home and office from the Justice Department. However, senior officials in Washington declined to approve it during the Trump administration for several reasons, including the proximity to the presidential election and Mr Trump's challenge to the results, according to a person familiar with the case.

Senior Justice Department officials under the new administration did not block the warrant, the person said.

Mr Giuliani said, "I think they should be investigated for blatantly violating my constitutional rights, the president's constitutional rights in the middle of the impeachment defence."

Mr Giuliani spent more time during the interview criticising the Justice Department, which he labelled the "department of injustice", for failing to investigate US President Joe Biden's son Hunter than he did discussing his case. Mr Trump's demand that Ukrainian officials open an investigation into Mr Biden in exchange for US military aid ultimately led to his first impeachment, although he was ultimately acquitted by the then Republican-controlled Senate. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two associates of Mr Giuliani, are facing federal charges related in part to their effort to oust Ms Yovanovitch.

Even as he was acting as Mr Trump's personal lawyer, Mr Giuliani was maintaining a private consulting business that sold services to foreign leaders.

That work posed no risks when it was confined to foreign soil, but raising anything on behalf of foreign clients with US officials could raise potential violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act, which requires lobbyists to disclose when they are working on behalf of foreign governments, according to legal experts.

The federal authorities are expected to scour the electronic devices seized during the raid for communications between Mr Giuliani and Trump administration officials about Ms Yovanovitch before she was recalled in April 2019.

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