A dramatic raid of Rudy Giuliani’s New York City apartment may have been spurred by a voicemail where the former Mayor of New York City hinted at having a burner phone, it was claimed.
Federal investigators may have been alerted over a November 2019 message Giuliani left his ex associate Lev Parnas in November 2019.
Giuliani is said to have been recorded saying: ‘Joe, it’s Rudy Giuliani,’ the message starts.
‘I’m calling, uh, to see if we can talk either about or with Lev. I have my lawyer with me, but you can call me back at [REDACTED]. That’s [REDACTED].’
Giuliani then adds: ‘That’s the soon to be gotten rid of number.’
Joseph Bondy, the attorney for former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, filed a motion in court in December that included a transcript of the voicemail message that the ex-mayor left him.‘
A link of the transcript was found on Wednesday by Newsweek.
Investigators’ raid of Rudy Giuliani’s New York City apartment and office on Wednesday may have been spurred by a transcript of a voicemail which surfaced in court recently about the former mayor’s ‘soon to be gotten rid of’ phone
Joseph Bondy (left), the attorney for former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas (right), filed a motion in court in December that included a transcript of a voicemail message that the ex-mayor left him in November 2019
![‘Joe, it’s Rudy Giuliani,’ the message starts. ‘I’m calling, uh, to see if we can talk either about or with Lev. I have my lawyer with me, but you can call me back at [REDACTED]. That’s [REDACTED].’ Giuliani then adds: ‘That’s the soon to be gotten rid of number.’](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/04/29/06/42354918-9524057-_Joe_it_s_Rudy_Giuliani_the_message_starts_I_m_calling_uh_to_see-m-115_1619674488185.jpg)
‘Joe, it’s Rudy Giuliani,’ the message starts. ‘I’m calling, uh, to see if we can talk either about or with Lev. I have my lawyer with me, but you can call me back at [REDACTED]. That’s [REDACTED].’ Giuliani then adds: ‘That’s the soon to be gotten rid of number.’
Bondy told Newsweek that the transcript was accurate.
‘I can confirm the veracity of the statements that I made in that reply motion,’ he said. Further details on what Giuliani may have been referring to have not been disclosed.
A burner phone is a cheap, pay-as-you go mobile phone intended for short term use, and which is untraceable back to its owner. It also remains unclear if Giuliani was implying he used one.
Donald Trump on Thursday slammed the FBI raid on ‘patriot’ Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment, saying it is ‘very unfair’.
The former president spoke out to defend his personal attorney after federal agents raided the 76-year-old former New York City mayor’s home and office Wednesday, taking with them his electronic devices including computers and cellphones.
Trump told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo: ‘Rudy Giuliani is a great patriot. He just loves this country, and they raid his apartment.
‘It’s like so unfair and…it’s like a double standard like I don’t think anybody’s ever seen before. It’s very, very unfair. Rudy is a patriot who loves this country.’
Joe Biden later said he found out about the raid ‘when the rest of the world learned about it’, adding: ‘I had no idea this was underway.’
The raid signals a major escalation of the Justice Department’s investigation into any possible violation of federal lobbying laws and the business dealings of Giuliani.
The raid may have been spurred by a voicemail where he hinted at having a burner phone, it was claimed Wednesday.
Giuliani, once celebrated for his leadership after 9/11, has been under federal scrutiny for several years over his ties to Ukraine. The dual searches sent the strongest signal yet that he could eventually face federal charges.
Giuliani’s lawyer Robert Costello said the warrants involved an allegation that Giuliani failed to register as a foreign agent and that investigative documents mentioned John Solomon, a frequent Fox News commentator with close ties to Giuliani.
Solomon pushed baseless or unsubstantiated allegations involving Ukraine and Biden during the 2020 election. His former employer, The Hill, published a review last year of some of his columns and determined they were lacking in context and missing key disclosures.
Trump said Thursday: ‘I don’t know what they’re looking for or what they’re doing.
‘They say it had to do with filings of various papers and lobbying files. Well, did Hunter [Biden] file? Did [President] Biden file? Because they did a lot of work with other countries. To the best of everyone’s knowledge, they didn’t file.
‘It’s a very, very unfair situation.’
He added: ‘It is so terrible when you see the things going on in our country with the corruption and the problems and then they go after Rudy Giuliani. It’s very said, actually.’
He ended the interview by telling Bartiromo: ‘You’re going after the Rudy Giuliani’s of the world when you have rapists and murderers coming in through the border.’
Andrew Giuliani blasted accused President Joe Biden’s Justice Department for playing politics after agents raided his father’s apartment and office
Giuliani’s lawyer Robert Costello blamed the investigation on ‘Trump derangement syndrome’ and also a accused agents of ignoring Hunter’s hard drives during their search
Agents searched Giuliani’s Madison Avenue apartment and Park Avenue office, people familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press.
The warrants, which required approval from the top levels of the Justice Department, signify that prosecutors believe they have probable cause that Giuliani committed a federal crime – though they do not guarantee that charges will materialize.
A third search warrant was served on a phone belonging to Washington lawyer Victoria Toensing, a former federal prosecutor and close ally of Giuliani and Trump.
Her law firm issued a statement saying she was informed that she is not a target of the investigation.
The full scope of the investigation is unclear, but it at least partly involves Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, law enforcement officials have told the AP.
Giuliani’s son Andrew has already accused the Department of Justice of raiding his father’s New York apartment and office for political reasons – and claims agents didn’t want to take allegedly incriminating evidence involving Hunter Biden.
Giuliani’s lawyer Costello blamed the investigation on ‘Trump derangement syndrome’ and also a accused agents of ignoring Hunter’s hard drives during their search.
Phone records published by House Democrats in 2019 in the wake of Trump’s first impeachment trial showed frequent contacts involving Giuliani, Solomon and Lev Parnas, a Giuliani associate who is under indictment on charges of using foreign money to make illegal campaign contributions.
Federal investigators may have been alerted over a November 2019 message Giuliani left his ex associate Parnas.
Giuliani is said to have been recorded saying: ‘Joe, it’s Rudy Giuliani,’ the message starts.
‘I’m calling, uh, to see if we can talk either about or with Lev. I have my lawyer with me, but you can call me back at [REDACTED]. That’s [REDACTED].’
Giuliani then adds: ‘That’s the soon to be gotten rid of number.’
Joseph Bondy, the attorney for former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, filed a motion in court in December that included a transcript of the voicemail message that the ex-mayor left him.‘
A link of the transcript was found on Wednesday by Newsweek.
Federal prosecutors have been looking at Giuliani for more than a year. In November 2019, they sought records of payments to Giuliani as part of an active criminal investigation, according to a grand jury subpoena seen by Reuters.
Prosecutors were investigating money laundering, wire fraud, campaign finance violations, making false statements, obstruction of justice, and violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, according to the subpoena.
The federal investigation centers on whether Giuliani acted as an unregistered federal agent and lobbied the Trump administration in 2019 on behalf of Ukrainian officials and oligarchs.
Those were the same group of people who were helping Giuliani search for dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who sat on the board of Ukrainian gas company, during the 2020 election in an effort to help Trump politically.
Prosecutors are looking into Giuliani’s dealings with Ukraine’s then-top prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who was crucial to Giuliani’s efforts to produce damaging information on the Bidens.
No such information ever came to light, neither Biden has been charged with a crime and Hunter Biden stepped down from Ukrainian company Burisma’s board during the 2020 election. Hunter Biden is under tax investigation.
Documents obtained by The New York Times suggest there were discussions for Lutsenko to pay $200,000 to retain Giuliani Partners.
FBI agents also raided Washington-area home of Victoria Toensing, a lawyer close to Rudy Giuliani; she is seen with Giuliani and her husband Joe diGenova at a November 2020 press conference at the Republican National Committee; Toensing and diGenova were on the legal team trying to overturn the results
Officers from the New York Police Department (NYPD) are seen exiting the apartment building of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Victoria Toensing, the lawyer whose attorney husband said the election security chief should be ‘shot at dawn’
Victoria Toensing and her husband Joseph diGenova are legal panelists on Newsmax, a right-wing media outlet. They used to be regulars on Fox News until DiGenova made wild claims that much of the State Department was under the control of a well-known Jewish financier George Soros.
Trump wanted them on his legal team for his impeachment trial – he was said to be impressed with diGenova’s defense of him on Fox News – but the two were unable to join due to conflicts of interest.
They represent Ukrainian businessman Dmitri Firtash, who was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with bribery and racketeering.
They also reportedly worked with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two associates of Giuliani’s who were arrested on charges of campaign finance violations.
A former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, diGenova pushed the theory that lawmakers tried to frame Trump when they investigated whether his campaign colluded with Russia four years ago.
Toensing represented Scooter Libby, the assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney, when Trump pardoned him.
Investigators have examined conversations Giuliani had about taking on hundreds of thousands of dollars in apparently unrelated consulting business from Lutsenko, but that deal never happened.
Trump praised Lutsenko as a ‘very good prosecutor’ during that phone call with Zelensky.
Toensing represented Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch under indictment in the United States whose help Giuliani sought. She is married to attorney Joseph diGenova and the couple were on the legal team – led by Giuliani – that challenged the 2020 election results on Trump’s behalf.
The raids indicate the investigation of the former New York City mayor has entered an aggressive new phase.
It is unusual for prosecutors to execute a search warrant on a lawyer, particularly one who has privileged conversations with his client, the former president of the United States.
After news of the raid broke, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney who was also subject of a federal raid and would eventually plead guilty to eight federal counts, including violating campaign finance law, tweeted: ‘Here we go folks.’
The Giuliani investigation grew out of a federal investigation of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who worked on gathering information about the Bidens during the election.
The two Soviet-born men were charged with federal campaign finance violations.
The two, who pleaded not guilty, were arrested at an airport outside Washington carrying one-way tickets to Europe. That investigation is on-going and faced some delays due to the COVID pandemic.
Trump has said he doesn’t know the two men or the work they did.
Investigators are also looking into Giuliani’s role in the ousting of US Ambassador to the Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was a prominent witness in Trump’s first impeachment trial. Current and former U.S. officials testified at that inquiry that Giuliani carried out a shadow foreign policy in Ukraine.
As Giuliani was pushing Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation of the Bidens, he pushed to have Yovanovitch removed, seeing her as an obstacle to his efforts to produce a probe that would benefit Trump politically.
At Giuliani’s urging, Trump had her recalled.
Contacted Wednesday, Fox contributor Solomon said it was news to him that the Justice Department was interested in any communications he had with Giuliani, though he said it was not entirely surprising given the issues raised in the impeachment trial.
‘He was someone that tried to pass information to me. I didn’t use most of it,’ Solomon said of Giuliani. ‘If they want to look at that, there’s not going to be anything surprising in it.’
Everything was sitting ‘in plain view,’ Solomon said. He said he believed his reporting had ‘stood the test of time’ and maintained that he was ‘unaware of a single factual error’ in any of his stories.
Solomon previously worked for The Associated Press, departing the news organization in 2006.
Giuliani’s neighbor Michele Hebert, the ex-wife of Pantone creator Larry Hevert, said she saw the FBI ‘taking a lot of stuff’ out of his Upper East Side apartment during their raid on Wednesday
Hebert, who divorced from Larry in 2017, spoke to the waiting press at the former Trump lawyer’s Manhattan address after the Department of Justice carried out a search warrant connected to his business dealings with Ukraine
Lev Parnas, center, and Igor Fruman with Rudy Giuliani at far right, Trump second right, and VP Mike Pence left
Investigators are also looking into Giuliani’s role in the ousting of US Ambassador to the Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was a prominent witness in Trump’s first impeachment trial. Prosecutors are also looking into Giuliani’s dealings with Ukraine’s then-top prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who was helping Giuliani in his dirt-digging mission
LEV PARNAS AND THE TRUMP FAMILY ALBUM: PICTURES WITH DONALD, DON JR. AND EVEN DON JR.’S KIDS
Really, I can’t place him at all: Yet another picture of the two together, this time in the Trump Hotel in D.C. has been released by Lev Parnas’ attorney
Have we met? I’m sure we haven’t! President Trump dismissed a photos of him and Parnas as just taken at a fundraiser – this is one of two taken on different occasions on front of the Florida state flag
‘I don’t believe I’ve ever met him.’ The House Intelligence Committee released this photograph of the two together in a document dump
You sure they didn’t speak Mr. President? Lev Parnas’ attorney released this video of them together at Mar-a-Lago
Lev Parnas with Donald Trump at the America First Action Superpac Leadership Summit at Trump Hotel Washington D.C. June 18 or 19 2018. Also partially visible right, Donald Trump Jr
You’ll have to help me out, I don’t believe we’re acquainted: Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas (second and third from left) pictured with Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani. Pence also denied he knew ‘the guy’
I take thousands of photos: Lev Parnas and Donald Trump have not yet reached that number of pictures together, but there are certainly more than one
Great to make your acquaintance for the first time: Lev Parnas and Donald Trump at the door of what appears to be Mar-a-Lago
Lev Parnas with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump
Lev Parnas and Ivanka Trump are seen together at Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration at Union Station, Washington D.C., in January 2017 in a new batch of photos from Parnas’ phone
Parnas mingles with Don Trump Jr and Trump Jr’s children in one of the photos at Trump’s inauguration celebration in Washington D.C. in 2017
Lev Parnas with Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump Jr
Lev Parnas and Jared Kushner at Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration in Union Station, Washington D.C., January 2017
Parnas (far right) poses with Jared Kushner, Don Trump Jr, and an unidentified man at Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration in Washington D.C., in January 2017
Parnas sits next to Donald Trump Jr in one of the photos released on Friday
Lev Parnas poses with with former Marine General John Kelly, then Donald Trump’s chief of staff, at the America First Action SuperPAC Leadership Summit at Trump Hotel Washington D.C. June 18 or 19 2018
We’ve never met, of course we can have a photograph: Lev Parnas’ attorney tweeted this image just after Kellyanne Conway climbed aboard the fast-moving denial train
No, I don’t believe we have: Mike Pence was the latest to say ‘I don’t know the guy,’ with an inevitable picture emerging
