Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, in September 2022.
CNN
—
Former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has been interviewed by federal investigators as part of the special counsel’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, multiple sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.
The meeting between Giuliani, his attorney Robert Costello, and investigators took place in recent weeks. The sources declined to say what investigators’ questions focused on during the meeting, which has not been previously reported.
Special counsel Jack Smith has not announced any charges stemming from his investigation into efforts to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election, but prosecutors appear to be nearing charging decisions, sources familiar with the case have said.
The interview with Giuliani comes amid a flurry of activity in the probe, which is examining a plan from Trump and his allies to put forth fake electors as well as potential financial crimes related to post-election fundraising. Investigators have called a steady stream of witnesses before a federal grand jury in recent weeks and have pressed attorneys to quickly bring in other witnesses for interviews, sources told CNN.
Sources say that some of the grand jury questioning has centered on the actions of top lawyers around Trump, including Giuliani, with investigators seeking information about their baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
Ted Goodman, a Giuliani political adviser, told CNN that “the appearance was entirely voluntary and conducted in a professional manner.”
A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment to CNN.
The special counsel’s office has long shown interest in several members of Trump’s post-election legal team, including Giuliani, Sidney Powell and John Eastman, as well as former Justice Department appointee Jeffrey Clark, who tried to help Trump’s push to use the department to overturn the election.
Several rounds of federal subpoenas have sought the communications of more than a dozen attorneys – including Giuliani, Powell, Eastman and Clark – because of how central some lawyers were to Trump’s post-election response.
At least some of the lawyers’ phones were seized by the FBI last year. The Justice Department filtered out privileged communications of Eastman and Clark and others to deliver the lawyers’ records to investigators, according to now-public court proceedings.
Trump’s White House counsel and then-Vice President Mike Pence’s then-top counsel also were compelled to testify despite their claims of attorney-client privilege.
CNN previously reported that Giuliani was subpoenaed late last year to turn over records to a federal grand jury as part of an investigation into the former president’s fundraising following the 2020 election.
The subpoena requested documents from Giuliani about payments he received around the 2020 election, when Giuliani filed numerous lawsuits on Trump’s behalf contesting the election results, a source told CNN.
In addition, Giuliani played a key role in overseeing the fake electors plot across seven battleground states, part of an effort to block the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
