WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. intelligence officials reportedly warned the White House last year that Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, was the target of a Russian intelligence influence operation.
According to The Washington Post the warning was based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications between Giuliani and people linked to Russian intelligence during the former New York City mayor’s December 2019 trip to Ukraine. The newspaper cited four former officials familiar with the matter for its reporting.
Giuliani visited Ukraine hoping to collect information that would tie Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, to corruption related to Hunter’s business dealings there. Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating the Democratic presidential candidate ultimately led to the president’s impeachment, although the Senate voted against convicting him.
Intelligence officials were concerned that Giuliani might be used to feed Russian disinformation to Trump, the former officials said. In one meeting, Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, cautioned the president that any information Giulani obtained in Ukraine should not be trusted, one former official told the Post. But Trump shrugged off any concerns about Giuilani’s activities, the official said.
The same former official said that several senior officials in the Trump administration — including Attorney General William Barr, FBI Director Christopher Wray and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone — “all had a common understanding” that Russians were targeting Giuliani.
The intelligence agencies’ warning about Trump’s lawyer had not been previously reported but seems particularly relevant this week after the New York Post published a series of articles about the Bidens based on unverified emails found on a laptop hard drive that Giuliani provided to the newspaper. The information was similar to what Giuliani had been seeking in Ukraine.
The former officials told The Washington Post that Giuliani was not under U.S. surveillance but was dealing with suspected Russian assets whose communications were being monitored.
Last month, the Treasury Department designated Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker who met with Giuliani in December, as an active Russian agent. Derkach’s past efforts included releasing “edited audio tapes and other unsupported information with the intent to discredit U.S. officials,” the Treasury Department said.
Giuliani told The Washington Post in a text message that he had only heard “secondary information” about Derkach being a Russian intelligence asset and that he was “not considering him a witness.” But the Post noted that Giuliani met with Derkach again in February 2020, when the Ukrainian politician appeared on his podcast, and that Giuliani promoted Derkach’s unsubstantiated claims about the Bidens.
The FBI and Justice Department declined to comment to the newspaper.
A spokesman for the National Security Council said O’Brien does not comment on the advice he gives the president but added that the national security adviser “can say that the President always treats such briefings with the utmost seriousness. The characterization of the meeting as described in this article is not accurate.”
Meanwhile, the New York Post’s reporting on the Bidens has drawn the interest of House Republicans. Nineteen GOP lawmakers sent a letter to the FBI on Thursday asking if the agency was in possession of the laptop at the time of Trump’s impeachment proceedings. The congress members said it would have been a “gross error in judgment” if the FBI withheld the material from Trump’s legal team.
NBC News reported Thursday that federal investigators are examining whether the emails found on the laptop are linked to a foreign intelligence operation.