Rudy Giuliani’s Turn In The Barrel Is Coming (Updated)

Last week, one of Rudy Giuliani’s Ukrainian buddies (from Trump’s First Impeachment) was sentenced to prison for a campaign finance violation. Giuliani Associate Sentenced To One Year In Prison In Foreign Donor Case:

A Florida man who helped Rudy Giuliani seek damaging information against Joe Biden in Ukraine was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $10,000 Friday in an unrelated campaign finance case.

Igor Fruman was told to report to prison March 14. He pleaded guilty in September to a single charge of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national.

As part of the plea, he admitted soliciting a million dollars from a Russian entrepreneur, Andrey Muraviev, to donate to Republicans in Nevada, Florida and other states as part of an effort to launch a recreational marijuana business.

Federal prosecutors in New York had urged Judge J. Paul Oetken to sentence Fruman to between three and four years in prison. Defense lawyers had argued he should face no incarceration because he has otherwise led a law-abiding life.

Oetken said the crime of soliciting foreign money for U.S. political campaigns was serious and deserved incarceration.

“It undermines the integrity of elections in our country,” he said as he announced the sentence. “It undermines democracy.”

Fruman, 55, the father of four children, told the judge he had reflected on his crime.

“It’s a shame that will live with me forever,” he said through a white face mask as several family members watched from wooden benches in an area for spectators.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten had urged a sentence of at least three years behind bars, saying the crime had caused “incalculable damage” because it harms the trust the public has in U.S. elections.

“That all the things they fear are happening with politicians are happening,” he said.

Scotten said the crime does “grave damage to the integrity of the electoral system.”

Fruman was charged in the case along with Lev Parnas, another Florida businessman who helped Giuliani’s attempt to spoil Biden’s quest for the presidency on the Democratic ticket.

The pair served as liaisons between Giuliani and Ukrainian officials and business tycoons as the former New York City mayor tried to persuade prosecutors in that country to investigate Biden’s son, Hunter, over his work for an energy company.

U.S. prosecutors haven’t [yet] brought any charges in connection with the Ukrainian influence campaign, which was the subject of one of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trials, but focused instead on donations that Fruman and Parnas made to U.S. politicians as they sought to build influence in Republican political circles.

Parnas was convicted in October of campaign finance crimes and awaits sentencing.

Politicians who got the illegal donations, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, have said they were unaware the money secretly came from a foreign source.

Muraviev was not charged in the case.

Giuliani, who worked for Trump as a personal attorney, faces a continuing investigation into whether he was required to register as an agent of a foreign government during his dealings with Ukraine authorities.

The inquiry partly involves an examination of whether Giuliani offered to lobby or influence the Trump administration on behalf of Ukrainian figures. Giuliani has said everything he did in Ukraine was done on Trump’s behalf and there is no reason he would have had to register as a foreign agent.

Following raids on Giuliani’s home and business last year, former federal judge Barbara Jones was appointed by a judge to determine what materials on electronic devices seized in the raid can be turned over to criminal prosecutors.

In a four-page report issued Friday, Jones said only a few dozen items among tens of thousands of communications on seven of his electronic devices have been prevented from being turned over to prosecutors because they contain privileged communications. She said she was awaiting further assignments.

The Washington Post reports, Thousands of Giuliani’s communications turned over to Manhattan U.S. attorney following privilege review:

The retired federal judge assigned to review the contents of 18 electronic devices seized from Rudolph W. Giuliani’s home and offices in Manhattan last spring has withheld about half of what former president Donald Trump’s personal lawyer argued should be kept out of the hands of investigators because it was privileged.

More than 3,000 communications were released to prosecutors on Wednesday, an action reflected in a four-page report submitted to a judge overseeing litigation on the FBI’s April 28 seizure of Giuliani’s phones and computers. The contents of the devices were not disclosed.

The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office has been investigating Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine while he was representing Trump. Prosecutors have said Giuliani might have acted as an unregistered foreign agent, which was the basis for the agents’ search.

* * *

Barbara S. Jones, in her progress statement filed Friday, reported that of the more than 25,000 chats and messages contained on a cellphone dating to the start of 2018, Giuliani initially asserted “privilege and/or highly personal” status on 96 items, 40 of which she granted. His attorneys withdrew their assertions on 19 of the items, and Jones said 37 “were not privileged.”

From that set of records, 56 items were released to federal prosecutors. On another set of Giuliani’s devices, more than 3,000 communications from Dec. 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019 were reviewed, but he did not assert privilege on any of the items. They were also released to prosecutors this week.

Previously, Jones sided with Giuliani with respect to three items he said were privileged. [Giuliani butt-dials to reporters?]

Ah, but the crime-fraud exception to privilege:

An attorney’s communications with a client are generally protected from outside inspection unless the exchange advances criminal activity. Privilege reviews are relatively routine and are sometimes done in-house by an independent team at a prosecutor’s office.

* * *

Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine played heavily in Trump’s first impeachment trial. He was alleged to have tried to pressure Ukraine’s president into announcing an investigation into President Biden and his son Hunter in the lead-up to the 2020 campaign.

In October 2019, two of Giuliani’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested at Dulles International Airport on campaign finance violations, including for using foreign funds to support U.S. political candidates.

Parnas and Fruman also were said to have assisted Giuliani in his efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials to make an announcement that would be detrimental to Biden.

The two clown associates have been convicted, but the circus ringleader has yet to be charged. Something’s not right here. Now that prosecutors have this trove of evidence, it’s time for them to act.

Giuliani faces more significant legal problems for leading the plot to submit fake Republican electors in seven states to Congress and the National Archives in an attempt to subvert the outcome of 2020 election.

UPDATE: CNN reports, Exclusive: Federal prosecutors looking at 2020 fake elector certifications, deputy attorney general tells CNN:

Federal prosecutors are reviewing fake Electoral College certifications that declared former President Donald Trump the winner of states that he lost, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told CNN on Tuesday.

“We’ve received those referrals. Our prosecutors are looking at those and I can’t say anything more on ongoing investigations,” Monaco said in an exclusive interview.

Monaco did not go into detail about what else prosecutors are looking at from the partisan attempt to subvert the 2020 vote count. She said that, more broadly, the Justice Department was “going to follow the facts and the law, wherever they lead, to address conduct of any kind and at any level that is part of an assault on our democracy.”

This is the first time that the Justice Department has commented on requests from lawmakers and state officials that it investigate the fake certifications.

Giuliani’s law license has already been suspended in New York and Washington, D.C. He should be disbarred.