May 27, 2021- 7:47 p.m.
“Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have been investigating whether several Ukrainian officials helped orchestrate a wide-ranging plan to meddle in the 2020 presidential campaign, including using Rudolph Giuliani to spread their misleading claims about President Biden and tilt the election in Donald Trump’s favor,” the New York Times reports,
“The criminal investigation, which began during the final months of the Trump administration and has not been previously reported, underscores the federal government’s increasingly aggressive approach toward rooting out foreign interference in American electoral politics. Much of that effort is focused on Russian intelligence, which has suspected ties to at least one of the Ukrainians now under investigation.”
The investigation is unfolding separately from a long-running federal inquiry in Manhattan that is aimed at Mr. Giuliani. While the two investigations have a similar cast of characters and overlap in some ways, Mr. Giuliani is not a subject of the Brooklyn investigation, the people said.
Instead, the Brooklyn prosecutors, along with the F.B.I., are focused on current and former Ukrainian officials suspected of trying to influence the election by spreading unsubstantiated claims of corruption about Mr. Biden through a number of channels, including Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer at the time. It is unclear whether the Brooklyn prosecutors will ultimately charge any of the Ukrainians.
At one point in the investigation, the authorities examined a trip Mr. Giuliani took to Europe in December 2019, when he met with several Ukrainians, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing inquiry.
At least one of the current and former officials Mr. Giuliani met, a Ukrainian member of parliament named Andriy Derkach, is now a focus of the Brooklyn investigation, the people said.
According 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.
