Alan Dershowitz slams FBI raid on Rudy Giuliani’s apartment as unconstitutional

Attorney Alan Dershowitz has called the FBI raid on Rudy Giuliani‘s Manhattan apartment unconstitutional, and says he is willing to assist in Giuliani’s defense.

Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor and Constitutional scholar, spoke on Sunday in an interview with podcast host John Catsimatidis on the Cats Roundtable show, reacting to Wednesday’s raid.

Agents seized more than 10 phones and computers from Giuliani’s Upper East Side apartment and office, with warrants suggesting the probe relates to Giuliani’s freelance ‘corruption’ investigations in Ukraine on behalf of Donald Trump.

‘In banana republics, in Castro’s Cuba, in many parts of the world when a candidate loses for president, they go after the candidate, they go after his lawyers, they go after his friends,’ said Dershowitz. 

Attorney Alan Dershowitz has called the FBI raid on Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment unconstitutional, and says he is willing to assist in Giuliani’s defense

Agents seized more than 10 phones and computers from Giuliani's Upper East Side apartment and office on Wednesday. Giuliani is seen above in November

Agents seized more than 10 phones and computers from Giuliani’s Upper East Side apartment and office on Wednesday. Giuliani is seen above in November

‘That’s happening in America now. They’re going after Rudy Giuliani,’ he said. ‘ An they’re going after him in inappropriate ways. A search warrant on a lawyer?’

Giuliani is a former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York as well as New York City mayor, and served as Trump’s personal attorney in his quest to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine. 

‘A search warrant on a lawyer or a doctor or a priest? You don’t use search warrants,’ he said, arguing that Giuliani likely had information on the seized devices protected by attorney-client privilege.

‘You don’t use search warrants when people have privileged information on their cell phones and in their computers. You use a subpoena. The difference between a subpoena and a search warrant is like night and day,’ he said. 

‘They’re taking everything from his cloud, from his computers, including privileged information. It’s just not constitutional,’ said Dershowitz.

Dershowitz said that Giuliani had called him on Saturday and asked for him to aid in his defense. ‘I said sure I’ll help out, I’m in favor of the Constitution,’ Dershowitz said.

‘Rudy and I have had our disagreements over the years about everything, but we completely agree about the Constitution,’ Dershowitz said. 

New York City Police officers investigate at the building former President Donald Trump's personal attorney and the former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani lives

New York City Police officers investigate at the building former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney and the former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani lives

Giuliani arrives at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in 2016

Giuliani arrives at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in 2016 

Dershowitz said that the raid on Giuliani’s home gave him ‘lots of legal arguments he could prevail on’ by challenging the constitutionality of the search. 

On Saturday, 76-year-old Giuliani was spotted meeting up with Maria Ryan – his rumored 56-year-old girlfriend and former alleged mistress – at a Manhattan cafe.

Giuliani, who was wearing a face mask, was seen arriving at a cafe close to his apartment on the Upper East Side where he was met by Ryan. 

The pair arrived in separate cars but left the cafe together. Giuliani appeared to be accompanied by an unidentified younger woman as he left the cafe. 

Ryan, who is believed to have three children, was spotted behind the wheel of the car as they left. Giuliani could be seen going through what appeared to files while sitting in the front seat. 

Ryan, who stepped down as CEO of a New Hampshire hospital in December, has reportedly been dating Trump’s personal lawyer since 2018. 

Search warrants indicate that investigators are seeking to review Rudy Giuliani’s phones and computers for communications with more than a dozen people, including a high-ranking prosecutor in Ukraine.

Rudy Giuliani was spotted leaving a cafe on the Upper East Side where he dined with his alleged girlfriend  Dr Maria Ryan on Saturday and left with an unknown woman (above)

Rudy Giuliani was spotted leaving a cafe on the Upper East Side where he dined with his alleged girlfriend  Dr Maria Ryan on Saturday and left with an unknown woman (above)

Dr Maria Ryan met Giuliani at the cafe after arriving there separately. The pair left in the same vehicle after emerging at different times

Dr Maria Ryan met Giuliani at the cafe after arriving there separately. The pair left in the same vehicle after emerging at different times 

They also are searching for communications with any U.S. government official or employee relating to Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was ousted by the Trump administration in 2019, the warrant says.

Agents seized more than 10 cell phones and computers from Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment and office in raids on Wednesday, according to his lawyer, Bob Costello, who read the search warrant to a Reuters reporter.

According to the warrant, investigators are looking for evidence that Giuliani acted as an unregistered foreign agent, a violation of lobbying laws.

Giuliani said in a statement following the raids that his “conduct as a lawyer and a citizen was absolutely legal and ethical.”  

A former federal prosecutor claimed on Sunday that Giuliani’s loyalty could shift as he may have to reveal ‘damning secrets’ about Trump in order to ‘save himself’ after the FBI raided his home.

Renato Mariotti, who worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois for nearly 10 years, penned an op/ed in Politico where he made the claims about the former president’s attorney.

He noted that Trump would be unlikely to testify on behalf of Giuliani, which could further lead to the attorney outing the former president to benefit himself ‘especially since he knows Trump cannot pardon him any longer.’

‘The only surefire way for Trump to avoid testimony in the trial of Giuliani would be to take the Fifth, but Trump has repeatedly noted that taking the Fifth makes you look guilty,’ Mariotti noted, adding that the only other way to get out of testifying is to condemn Giuliani’s actions and suggest he didn’t know about it.

‘That would make him worthless for Giuliani as a witness and force Giuliani to point the finger at Trump to save himself,’ he continued.

Mariotti claims in his column that Giuliani’s legal trouble could affect Trump since it reportedly centers around the attorney’s efforts to lobby Trump on behalf of Ukrainian officials – the same ones who were also helping dig up dirt on then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his family.

‘At issue, as well, are Giuliani’s efforts to persuade Trump to oust the ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, whose anti-corruption work was viewed hostilely by those same Ukrainian officials. If Giuliani’s efforts to push Trump to fire Yovanovitch were done on behalf of Ukrainian officials, that could be the sort of foreign lobbying activity that he should have disclosed,’ Mariotti wrote. 

People the FBI seeks Giuliani’s communications with

LEV PARNAS AND IGOR FRUMAN

Ukrainian-born Parnas and Belarus-born Fruman are two Florida-based businessmen who helped Giuliani dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter before the 2020 presidential election and push to remove Yovanovitch.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have accused Parnas and Fruman of using a shell company to make an illegal $325,000 donation to a committee supporting Trump’s re-election. The men have pleaded not guilty to violating campaign finance laws and other charges. A trial is scheduled for October.

PETRO POROSHENKO

A confectionary magnate and one of Ukraine’s richest men, Poroshenko took power in 2014 and served as the country’s president until 2019. At Giuliani’s direction, Parnas and Fruman met Poroshenko in February 2019, while he was still in office, and pressed him to announce investigations into Hunter Biden and purported Ukrainian interference in the 2016 presidential election in exchange for a state visit, the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post reported.

GYUNDUZ MAMEDOV  

Mamedov, who currently serves as a high-ranking prosecutor in Ukraine, was a key intermediary in Giuliani’s efforts to press Ukraine to open investigations that would tarnish Biden, according to NBC News.

He played a role in setting up a meeting between Giuliani and Ukrainian officials, NBC reported

VIKTOR SHOKIN

Shokin became Ukraine’s general prosecutor in February 2015 and led an investigation into the energy company Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where Biden’s son Hunter was a board member from 2014 to 2019.

Shokin was removed from his job in 2016 following accusations of corruption by Western diplomats.

Giuliani told Reuters he met with Shokin over Skype in late 2018.  

YURIY LUTSENKO  

Lutsenko succeeded Shokin as general prosecutor. In 2019, Lutsenko told John Solomon, a U.S. columnist, that he had evidence related to the Bidens and Burisma. Later that year Lutsenko told Reuters he found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Biden’s son in his relationship with the energy firm.

Giuliani told Reuters in 2019 that he met with Lutsenko twice early that year.

KOSTIANTYN KULYK

Kulyk, a former Ukrainian prosecutor, also worked on the country’s investigations into Burisma. Giuliani told Reuters he met with Kulyk in Paris in 2019.

GLIB ZAGORIY

A Ukrainian businessman and former lawmaker, Zagoriy attended a meeting between Giuliani and Lutsenko in January 2019, according to documents released by the U.S. State Department. 

DAVID CORREIA

Correia, another Florida businessman, pleaded guilty last year to making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and duping investors in Fraud Guarantee, a company he founded with Parnas that paid Giuliani $500,000. 

VICTORIA TOENSING AND JOE DIGENOVA

Toensing and diGenova are married Washington lawyers who helped Giuliani represent Trump in his post-election lawsuits. 

They represented Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, who is fighting extradition from Vienna on U.S. bribery and racketeering charges. FBI agents raided the couple’s home earlier this week and seized a cellphone used by Toensing.  

JOHN SOLOMON

Solomon worked for The Hill, a Washington newspaper and website covering Congress, when he wrote a series of pieces that Yovanovitch testified to Congress were part of a smear campaign against her that Giuliani appeared to be behind. The Hill later said Solomon failed to identify important details about key Ukrainian sources, including the fact that they had been indicted or were under investigation. 

-Reuters