Turkish Advocacy Puts Giuliani Under Investigation

This case, over pressure placed on Trump, isn't criminal
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 29, 2021 2:28 PM CDT
Turkish Advocacy Puts Giuliani Under Investigation
Rudy Giuliani speaks last week at an event for Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa in New York.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

The Justice Department is looking into whether Rudy Giuliani conducted lobbying for Turkey. Giuliani's activities involving Ukraine already are being investigated; that case is being handled separately, ABC reports. There was no comment yet from Giuliani or his lawyer, but the former personal lawyer for former President Trump has denied conducting lobbying for foreign entities in the past. The allegations involve requests made to Trump during his presidency; the issue is whether they were on behalf of Turkey's government. Giuliani asked Trump to extradite Fethullah Gülen, an exiled cleric, to Turkey, per the Hill. And Giuliani wanted Trump to drop federal charges against an Iranian-Turkish gold trader, Reza Zarrab; he was accused of helping a state-owned Turkish bank send $10 billion to Iran despite the US sanctions.

Trump didn't do either. Giuliani hasn't publicly disclosed any such activities, but the Justice Department could make him do so, as well as register as a foreign agent. The Turkey investigation isn't criminal, but the Ukraine one is, per Bloomberg. Federal raids on Giuliani's home and office in April were reportedly connected to the Ukraine investigation. The New York Times reported in 2019 that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson objected at the time to any effort to get Zarrab released, saying that intervening in an open criminal case would be inappropriate. Giuliani called the reporting of his talks with Tillerson about Zarrab's case "a completely malicious story coming from the consistent attack on me to try to destroy my credibility," though he said attorney-client privilege prevented him from saying what the inaccuracies were. (More Rudy Giuliani stories.)

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