FBI seized 18 electronic devices in Rudy Giuliani raid

Investigators extract data from devices as they seek a court appointee to review contents

Newly unsealed court documents revealed that 18 devices were seized by federal prosecutors during the raid of Rudy Giuliani’s home and office.

The devices belonged to Mr Giuliani and "certain employees", while another device was sized in a raid of lawyer Victoria Toensing’s apartment.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also seized email and iCloud data from Mr Giuliani and Ms Toensing in 2019 under a "covert warrant".

While the time frame of the records covered by the warrants was redacted, Bloomberg previously reported it spanned an 18-month period from May 2018.

Details of the raid were made public when the previously redacted letter to US District Judge Paul Oetken was unsealed on Thursday.

Attorneys argued in a court filing last week that prosecutors could not review the materials seized during the April raid until the defence received more information on Mr Giuliani’s iCloud records seized in November 2019.

Robert Costello wrote that much of the information is covered by attorney-client privilege, saying prosecutors were treating Mr Giuliani like a terrorist or head of a drug cartel.

“Given the complexity of Mr Giuliani’s personal and professional relationships and the related communications, it is a near-impossible task to accurately list all individuals with whom Mr Giuliani had a privileged relationship or communications,” Mr Costello wrote.

Prosecutors have asked the court for a "special master" to comb through the data, saying that the appointment would "promote the perception of fairness" to a greater degree than if it was done by a government team.

Investigators are examining the former mayor’s dealings in Ukraine while working for former president Donald Trump.

They are attempting to establish whether he violated federal law preventing lobbying on behalf of foreign countries without registering with the US.

While focused on Mr Giuliani’s Ukraine activities, Politico reported on Tuesday, investigators have also been looking into his Romania connections.

Newsweek reported that the April raid on a Manhattan apartment and office may have been triggered by a voicemail Mr Giuliani left with attorney Joseph Bondy, in which he reportedly said to call back on "the soon to be gotten rid of number".

The newly-unsealed documents on Thursday did not break down how many of the 18 devices belonged to Mr Giuliani versus those belong to various members of his staff.

But it is likely none belonged to Hunter Biden. Mr Giuliani previously told Fox News that during the raid he offered federal agents hard drives containing data from the laptop of Joe Biden’s son.

"At the end of the search, when they had taken about, I would say, seven or eight electronic items of mine ... they weren’t taking the three hard drives, which of course, are electronic devices. They just mimic the computer. I said, ‘Well, don’t you want these?’ And they said, ‘What are they?’ I said, ‘Those are Hunter Biden’s hard drives.’ And they said ‘no, no, no’," he told Fox host Tucker Carlson.

"The search warrant is on one single failure to file for representing a Ukrainian national or official that I never represented," he added. "I never represented a Ukrainian national or official before the United States government. I’ve declined it several times. I’ve had contracts in countries like Ukraine. In the contract is a clause that says I will not engage in lobbying or foreign representation. I don’t do it because I felt it would be too compromising."

Mr Giuliani had been in Ukraine to try to find damning information about Hunter Biden, who had served on the board of an energy company called Burisma. Mr Trump was impeached in 2019 for trying to blackmail the Ukrainian president into finding dirt on the younger Mr Biden in return for arms sales to protect his country from Russian-backed rebels, as well as a White House visit.