Here's why the New York AG considered investigating Rudy Giuliani

30 October 2023

In the aftermath of Rudy Giuliani's trip to Ukraine — in which he sought to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden — the former New York City mayor was in the crosshairs of the New York Attorney General's office.

According to a new report in the Daily Beast, Giuliani aroused the suspicion of "top brass" in the office of Attorney General Letitia James, who laid out the case for a potential civil investigation a January 2020 memo. James' staff reportedly thought it was "highly likely" that Trump's personal lawyer going to Ukraine ahead of his client's reelection campaign to do opposition research for his would-be general election opponent amounted to "practicing law in violation of New York’s Judiciary and Executive Laws."

That memo suggested that Giuliani should be investigated for "conspiracy to abuse government power for personal gain” and for “obstruction of Congress and justice."

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Trump was impeached in the US House of Representatives following news of his call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which then-President Trump appeared to withhold aid in exchange for political favors. New York investigators thought the potential investigation of Trump's lawyer was symmetrical to the US Senate's pending impeachment trial of the ex-president. Senior enforcement council John Oleske wrote that the AG's office had the "explicit statutory power to investigate and prosecute criminal and civil actions against NY attorneys who practice law unlawfully [including]… instances where lawyers are ‘guilty of any deceit or collusion.’"

Talks of an official investigation into Giuliani were ultimately cut short after internal discussions between investigators concluded that the statute Giuliani was potentially in violation of — Judiciary Law § 476-a — was only applied to non-lawyers attempting to practice law. At the time, Giuliani was still a licensed attorney in New York, and the Attorney General's office determined that such an investigation would have been "unprecedented and contrary to the purpose of the statute."

An unspecified source within the AG's office told the Daily Beast that despite the ideas discussed in the memo, James' office "does not have the legal authority to look into this matter, so it was never pursued."

Giuliani kept his law license until June of 2021, when a New York appeals court took it away after the former New York City mayor making false statements in court in attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Giuliani is now under felony indictment in Fulton County, Georgia for allegedly conspiring with Trump and others to overturn the will of Georgia voters.

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