Justice Department Investigating Giuliani for Foreign Lobbying for Turkey

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The Department of Justice has launched an investigation into Rudy Giuliani‘s possible foreign lobbying for Turkish interests. The investigation, which is not a criminal one, is separate from a criminal investigation into Giuliani’s activities in Ukraine, according to a Bloomberg report.

“For almost a year, the former New York mayor and personal lawyer to Donald Trump has been fielding questions about whether he was acting for Turkey when he pushed the Trump administration in 2017 to drop money-laundering charges against gold trader Reza Zarrab and deport exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen,” Bloomberg reported. “Zarrab later pleaded guilty and implicated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a sanctions-evasion scheme, while Erdogan claims Gulen was behind a failed 2016 coup against his government.”

Giuliani has denied lobbying for both Turkey and Ukraine. The latest inquiry is the latest addition to his legal woes.

Last week, a New York appellate court officially suspended the law license of Giuliani, writing in a 33-page decision that he made “demonstrably false and misleading” statements about the 2020 election while working as former President Donald Trump‘s personal attorney.

Speculation that Giuliani would lose his law license has persisted since January, when the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) announced it would look to remove Giuliani from its membership, citing his involvement in inciting the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol, a sign that he would face further blowback from the legal community.

Earlier this month, a federal judge approved a request from the Department of Justice to appoint an independent supervisor to review materials seized from Giuliani’s home. The move is part of an effort to filter out any privileged documents obtained in the investigation into Giuliani. The judge 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.