Federal prosecutors do not expect to bring criminal charges against Rudy Giuliani after a long investigation into his work in Ukraine, the government told a judge on Monday.
Officials had been investigating Giuliani, who served as former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, to determine if he had illegally lobbied the U.S. government during the Trump administration. The investigation centered on efforts to remove the then U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yavanovitch, from her post in 2019. Prosecutors were looking to see if there was a quid pro quo to get dirt on the Trump rival Joe Biden’s family before the 2020 presidential election.
The decision came after prosecutors reviewed evidence gathered during raids last year at Giuliani’s home and law office. They seized 16 devices, but now say there was not enough concrete evidence to prove any wrongdoing.
Federal law mandates that lobbyists working on behalf of a foreign government disclose such work to the Justice Department.
“The Government writes to notify the Court that the grand jury investigation that led to the issuance of the above-referenced warrants has concluded, and that based on information currently available to the Government, criminal charges are not forthcoming,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
The decision is a victory for Giuliani in one of many ongoing investigations into his work.
“Having seen all the evidence, I’m not at all surprised,” Giuliani’s attorney Robert Costello told The New York Times.
Giuliani still faces federal investigations as well as state probes in Georgia over his efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss. He is also being sued by Dominion Voting Systems over the lawyer’s unfounded claims about election fraud involving its voting machines.
