Federal Judge Rejects Giuliani's Efforts Challenging Search Warrant

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Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:30 pm

District Court Judge J. Paul Oetken has approved a request from the Department of Justice to appoint an independent supervisor to review materials seized from Rudy Giuliani’s home through a search warrant last month. The move is part of an effort to filter out any privileged documents obtained in the investigation into Giuliani, who was once former President Donald Trump‘s attorney.

Oetken’s ruling also rejected Giuliani’s efforts to challenge the legality of the search warrant as well as a previous one that was executed two years ago.

“Giuliani requests that the Court unseal the affidavits submitted in support of the 2019 and 2021 warrants so he can challenge their legality,” the judge wrote in a 7-page decision. “But he is not entitled to a preview of the Government’s evidence in an ongoing investigation before he has been charged with a crime.”

Giuliani had his home raided by federal agents as part of a federal investigation into his business dealings with Ukraine.

Last month, during an interview with Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, he spoke about his experience while evoking Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.

“Well, about six o’clock in the morning, there was a big bang! bang! bang! on the door and outside were seven FBI agents with a warrant for electronics,” Giuliani began. “And I looked at the warrant and I said, ‘This is extraordinary because I offered to give these to the government and talk it over with them for two years.’”

Giuliani said the agents were “professional” but were not interested in three hard drives he claimed belonged to Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.

“I said, ‘Are you sure you don’t want them?’ I mean the warrant required them to take it,” Giuliani said. “And they said ‘No!’”

Giuliani implied the agents were not complying with their warrant by declining to take them.

“They also were completely content to rely on my word that these were Hunter Biden’s hard drives. I mean, they could have been Donald Trump’s. They could have been Vladimir Putin’s. They could have been anybody’s. But they relied on me, the man who had to be raided in the morning,” he said.

Conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden’s business dealings have been a favorite in conservative circles for some time.

Last year, a New York Post investigation published emails suggesting Hunter Biden introduced his father to an executive with Burisma Holdings––a Ukrainian gas firm––in 2015. The story received criticism for shaky reporting and Twitter’s attempts to block the news outlet from sharing the story received criticism from Republicans who accused the tech giant of censoring conservative voices.