Rudy Giuliani spreads nonsense conspiracy theories about the DOJ and the Bidens in Fox News appearance following FBI raids
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- Rudy Giuliani told Tucker Carlson that he could have destroyed evidence seized by the FBI "years ago."
- Giuliani claimed that the evidence taken was "exculpatory" and amplified nonsense conspiracy theories about the Bidens and Ukraine.
- He went on to say that the Justice Department should be investigated without providing credible evidence to support the demand.
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Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that he could have destroyed evidence that the FBI seized this week "years ago."
During an appearance on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Giuliani described the raid on his home, saying, "At about six o'clock in the morning, there was a big bang, bang, bang on the door." He added that the agents who executed the search warrant were professional and took seven or eight electronic devices, and two that did not belong to him.
In addition to Giuliani's Manhattan home, the feds also raided his office and the Washington, DC, home of one of his associates and a fellow attorney, Victoria Toensing. They seized a computer belonging to his personal assistant, Jo Ann Zafonte and also served her with a subpoena to testify before a grand jury in May.
The raids marked an aggressive new phase in the longrunning federal investigation into whether Giuliani violated foreign lobbying laws through his dealings with Ukraine.
Giuliani told Carlson on Thursday that when agents raided his property, he pointed to hard drives purportedly filled with documents related to President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, and asked, "Don't you want these?"
The former mayor also issued a statement Wednesday through his attorney Robert Costello alleging that he was targeted because of a "corrupt double standard," and saying investigators "left behind the only electronics that contain evidence of crimes, the Hunter Biden hard drives," which he claimed to have offered up on "several occasions."
Giuliani repeatedly told Carlson that the agents were required to take all electronics under the subpoena, but also that they shouldn't have taken his word for what the hard drives contained.
"They could have been Donald Trump's hard drives," Giuliani said.
"I could have detroyed evidence years ago. I've had it for two years, and I haven't destroyed it," he added, and speculated about the timing of the raid while making the case for his cooperation and innocence.
Giuliani called the search warrant "illegal" without offering any evidence to back up the claim, and pushed the lie that the Biden family had broken the law for 30 years.
Giuliani claimed his dealings with Ukraine were related solely to his effort to prove Trump's innocence with respect to the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election, which Trump was not charged with a crime in. Giuliani also said his work in Ukraine was connected to his quest to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden related to his work for the Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma Holdings..
"They won't explain to me what they're looking into for two years," Giuliani said. "I've never represented a Ukranian national while with the US government."
Carlson then alleged that Democrats are being, "paid to hate Russia" and Giuliani said the Justice Department should be investigated.
"They invaded my iCloud, and took documents that were priveleged. The Justice Department spied on me. We might as well be in East Berlin before the wall was up," Giuliani said.
He is now the second Trump lawyer to have had his properties raided. The FBI executed search warrants on Trump's former fixer and attorney, Michael Cohen, in 2018, and Cohen later pleaded guilty to several felonies including campaign finance violations, tax evasion, and lying to Congress.
On Thursday, Cohen relished Giuliani's legal woes, telling CNN's Alisyn Camerota, "My parents always told me it's not nice to gloat, but Rudy, I told you so. I told you so!"
Cohen said that he told Giuliani, "Donald Trump doesn't care about anyone or anything" and that Giuliani "will be the next one to be thrown under the bus."
"And that's exactly what's going to happen," he told CNN.
"We have no idea how expansive this investigation is going to ultimately reveal itself because Rudy's an idiot. And that's the problem. Rudy drinks too much, Rudy behaves in such an erratic manner that who knows what's on those telephones or what's on his computers."
Camerota then asked Cohen what he thought Giuliani might do if prosecutors start tightening the screws on him, and whether he would "flip" and offer up information about Trump in exchange for leniency.
Cohen noted that before Trump became president, he and Giuliani did not like each other. "So do I think Rudy will give up Donald in a heartbeat? Absolutely," he said.
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