Feds treat him like drug boss or terrorist

Attorneys for Rudy Giuliani say a covert warrant that prosecutors obtained for his Apple iCloud account in November 2019 and a raid last month by agents who seized his electronic devices show they are treating him more like a drug kingpin or terrorist than a personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump.

In a letter to a federal judge in Manhattan, the lawyers said that by secretly seizing Giuliani’s cloud data files in 2019, investigators had improperly intruded on private communications with the president.

The seized files, they wrote, likely included “material relating to the impending impeachment, the welfare of the country, and to national security.”

They asked the judge to unseal affidavits in support of the Nov. 4, 2019, search warrant. Reviewing the affidavits, the lawyers said, will help them expand their argument “that this unilateral, secret review was illegal“and that any evidence gathered from it should be suppressed.

The letter was sent to a Manhattan federal judge who is considering whether to appoint a “special master” to protect attorney-client privilege during a review of evidence gathered from raids on Giuliani’s residence and office in April.

It was initially sent last week. A redacted version was made public Monday.

A spokesperson for prosecutors declined comment.

Federal prosecutors in New York are examining Giuliani’s interactions with Ukrainian figures and whether he violated a federal law that governs lobbying on behalf of foreign countries or entities without registering with the U.S. government.

Any warrant issued in 2019 as part of that inquiry, or any other investigation, would have been approved by a neutral judge.

Giuliani, a Republican and former New York City mayor who represented Trump in the special counsel’s Russia investigation, has not been charged with a crime.