Former mob prosector drafted in to review evidence in Giuliani case

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A retired federal judge with a history of prosecuting mafia leaders has been suggested to review the evidence against Rudy Giuliani, the ex-lawyer of former President Donald Trump.

After a career as a US attorney that included helping bring the Bonnano crime family to justice in 1985, Judge Barbara Jones is currently back in private practice as a partner at Bracewell LLP, which once had Mr Giuliani as a named partner.

Mr Giuliani is being investigated in connection with his activities in Ukraine during the Trump presidency. He has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

The prosecutors behind April’s raid on the Manhattan home and office of the former New York city mayor want Judge Jones to be involved “because her background and the resources available to her at her law firm will allow her to complete a privilege review in a fair and efficient manner.”

This reasoning was outlined in a letter from three Assistant US District Attorneys; Rebekah Donaleski,  Aline T Flodr and Nicolas Roos. The letter was addressed to US District Court Judge Paul J Oetken on Thursday, and seen by The Washington Post.

Judge Jones’ connection to Mr Giuliani’s old firm is not considered a conflict of interest because he left in 2016, which was months before she joined, the prosecutors say in the letter.

Her role will be as a “special master”, a role that Judge Oetken had allowed to be recruited for the case, requesting recommendations for the role by the end of this week.

An example of her experience of working in a similar privilege review was in the case of Michael Cohen, another former personal attorney to Mr Trump, in 2018. She went through documents to discover if any were off limits in the trial due to attorney-client confidentiality.

Judge Oetken’s approval process for Judge Jones has the potential to take months, but the appointment has been accepted by the defence counsel for Mr Giuliani and Victoria Toensing, who was also targeted in an FBI raid, according to the letter.

There is no concrete understanding of what data, such as communications, have been uncovered from Mr Giuliani’s iCloud account or any other devices. The warrant to search this was acquired secretly from Apple from the same federal investigators from New York.

Mr Giuliani denies any accusations of misconduct, as does Ms Toensing.

The raids were carried in April after a laborious attempt to acquire warrants, and was first reported by The New York Times. In order to be granted one, prosecutors needed to convince a judge that there exists sufficient evidence to show a crime had been committed.