Former President Trump speaks on the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 28.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday (April 29) criticized the raid of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s apartment by FBI agents, saying in an interview earlier Thursday that it was a double standard and very unfair.
“Rudy Giuliani was a great patriot. He loves this country, and (the FBI) they raided his apartment.” Trump said on Fox Business’ “Morning with Maria” early Thursday morning.
Giuliani served as Trump’s former personal attorney.
“It’s so unfair, it’s like a double standard that I don’t think anybody has ever seen,” he continued, “and it’s very, very unfair. Rudy is a patriot who loves this country.”
Federal agents raided Giuliani’s apartment and law office in New York City at 6 a.m. Wednesday (28) and seized a number of electronic devices, including laptops and cell phones.
Authorities have been investigating whether Giuliani violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) when he lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of Ukraine, which requires individuals to notify the State Department if they are acting as foreign agents.
Giuliani, as Trump’s personal attorney, was a central figure in Trump’s push to investigate the corruption of then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in connection with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. Hunt was a member of the Ukrainian company’s board of directors.
Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, said in a statement released after the raid that Giuliani was very cooperative with investigators, but that the agents were oddly biased in refusing to view and receive the hard drive containing Hunt’s contents.
Trump also took issue with that Thursday. “I don’t know what they’re looking for or what they’re doing,” Trump told Maria, “and they said it had to do with all kinds of documents and lobbying documents (not) being filed. OK, so did Hunter file? Did Biden file? Because they do a lot of this stuff with other countries. It’s well known that they didn’t file.”
“It’s a very, very unfair situation,” Trump said, “where you see what’s going on in our country – corruption and all kinds of problems – and then they (go) to Giuliani, and it’s horrible. That’s actually what happened.”
Trump deplored the double standard that former officials in his administration have been subjected to with Democratic figures. He focused on allegations that Biden’s climate envoy, former Secretary of State John Kerry, discussed Israeli military action with Iran’s foreign minister during his tenure in the Obama administration.
In an interview with NBC News on Thursday, Biden denied that he knew in advance that the FBI was going to search Giuliani’s home.
“I assure you I did not know about it,” Biden replied, “and I made a promise. I will not in any way interfere or try to stop any investigation that is being conducted by the Justice Department. I only became aware of this last night when the rest of the world learned of it. That’s what I said – I was unaware of this when it happened.”
At the same time, he denied having been briefed on it.
The New York Times first reported Wednesday that the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and the FBI had been trying for months to obtain a search warrant for Giuliani’s phone.
Justice Department officials repeatedly tried to block such a warrant during the Trump administration, and after Merrick Garland was appointed as President Biden’s attorney general, the Justice Department lifted its opposition to the warrant.
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