Giuliani’s home searched, son: Americans should feel extremely uneasy

Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for then-U.S. President Donald Trump and former New York City mayor, speaks during a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, Nov. 19, 2020.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigators searched the home of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday (April 28). Giuliani’s son, Andrew Giuliani, later responded by saying that Americans should be “extremely disturbed” by the development.

Speaking to commentators at conservative media outlet Newsmax in New York, Andrew Giuliani said, “Any American, whether you’re red (Republican) or blue (Democrat), should be extremely troubled by what’s happening here today as the Justice Department continues to be politicized.”

He added, “If it happened to the former president’s lawyer, it could happen to any American.” He further noted that the Justice Department is not “independent of politics.”

Lawyers for former Mayor Giuliani told the Wall Street Journal and Fox News that seven FBI agents came to Giuliani’s home and stayed there for two hours. They confiscated several cell phones, laptops and some other electronic devices.

Giuliani’s attorney, Robert J. Costello, told Fox News, “It was totally unnecessary.” He added that the raid “made him [Giuliani] look like some kind of criminal.”

Costello told the Wall Street Journal, “What they [investigators] did today was legal thuggery.” This echoes comments made by Giuliani’s son. “Why would you do that to someone, let alone to someone who has served as deputy attorney general of the Department of Justice, federal prosecutor, mayor of New York City, and personal attorney to the 45th president of the United States?”

At the press conference, Andrew Giuliani cited the allegations against Hunter Biden, saying, “The only evidence they didn’t take from there today is the only piece of incriminating evidence there – it doesn’t belong to my father, it belongs to the current president’s son.” While he did not elaborate further, he may have been referring to a laptop that once belonged to Hunter Biden and which later fell into Giuliani’s hands.

While the New York Times was the first media outlet to reveal the search of Giuliani’s residence, it is unclear what the matter is related to. 2019 saw two former Giuliani aides, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, charged with campaign finance violations. Both have denied guilt.

Trump (R-Texas) has yet to issue a statement on the matter.

However, in 2018, when the home of Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen was raided by federal agents, the former president denounced the move at the time as a “political witch hunt” by the Justice Department to undermine his presidency and the legitimacy of his 2016 presidential victory.