#giulani

Exactly!

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani broke lobbying laws in his dealings in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the inquiry.

The investigators are examining Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to undermine the American ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, one of the people said. She was recalled in the spring as part of Mr. Trump’s broader campaign to pressure Ukraine into helping his political prospects.

The investigation into Mr. Giuliani is tied to the case against two of his associates who were arrested this week on campaign finance-related charges, the people familiar with the inquiry said. The associates were charged with funneling illegal contributions to a congressman whose help they sought in removing Ms. Yovanovitch.

Mr. Giuliani has denied wrongdoing, but he acknowledged that he and the associates worked with Ukrainian prosecutors to collect potentially damaging information about Ms. Yovanovitch and other targets of Mr. Trump and his allies, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his younger son, Hunter Biden. Mr. Giuliani shared that material this year with American government officials and a Trump-friendly columnist in an effort to undermine the ambassador and other Trump targets.

When the Department of Justice Inspector General released his report last week abut the FBI’s improper investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails, no one was spared. The IG slammed everyone from James Comey on down, calling out everyone in detail for every error in judgment they made, no matter how small, while showing no bias toward or against anyone. Just one thing was missing: the FBI’s leak about the investigation to Rudy Giuliani shortly before election day. Now we know why.

We know that one or more FBI personnel told Giuliani in advance that something was about to happen with regard to Hillary Clinton, because Giuliani went on television and bragged that he knew it was coming. The leakers were clearly committing a crime by leaking information about Clinton to a Donald Trump campaign adviser. But if it were only the leakers facing criminal liability, the FBI would have dealt with them long ago, and that would have been spelled out in the IG report.

The omission of the entire incident, in an otherwise detailed and wide ranging and brutal report, strongly suggested that Rudy Giuliani is under criminal investigation – and that it was omitted so as not to interfere with that investigation. Today the DOJ Inspector General himself, Michael Horowitz was directly asked about whether he looked into the FBI’s leaks to Rudy Giuliani. According to CNN’s Manu Raju, the IG responded to the question by simply stating that the investigative work “remains ongoing.”

In other words, yes, Rudy Giuliani is under criminal investigation. Notably, just a few days ago, Trump-aligned Congressman Devin Nunes screwed up and admitted that certain FBI agents also leaked information to him (and presumably the Donald Trump campaign) during the election as well. Now that we know Rudy’s role in these leaks is being investigated, it’s fair to conclude that Nunes is being investigated for it as well.