Prosecutors say a former federal judge who ensured privilege was protected during a review of materials seized from ex-President Donald Trump's lawyer three years ago is again the favourite to try to to an equivalent chore after raids on Rudolph Giuliani's home and office.
NEW YORK — A former federal judge who ensured privilege was protected during a review of materials seized from ex-President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer three years ago is again the favourite to try to to an equivalent chore after raids on Rudolph Giuliani’s home and office, prosecutors said Thursday.
Prosecutors recommended the appointment of Barbara Jones during a letter submitted to a Manhattan judge who plans to appoint a “special master” to guard privilege during a review of materials seized within the late-April raids on Giuliani and during a check out information on a telephone taken from Washington lawyer Victoria Toensing. They said Jones could conduct the review during a “fair and efficient manner.”
Prosecutors are examining Giuliani’s interactions with Ukrainian figures and whether he violated a law governing lobbying on behalf of foreign countries or entities. A firm representing Toensing, a former federal prosecutor and shut ally of Giuliani and Trump, has said Toensing was told she wasn't a target of the investigation.
In the letter to U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken, prosecutors said Giuliani and Toensing, through their lawyers, both agreed to the appointment of Jones and that they said they were writing on behalf of them too.
Oetken said last week that he plans to appoint a “special master,” an unusual step that prosecutors requested each day after the raids, to stop investigators from seeing any protected communications between Giuliani and his clients, including Trump. The judge had asked prosecutors and lawyers for Giuliani and Toensing to submit possible candidates in the week for the review.
Prosecutors said that they had checked with Jones and she or he is “available to simply accept this appointment.”
They said Jones, who served as a Manhattan federal judge from 1995 to 2013, had been praised for her review of materials seized during a 2018 raid on the house and office of Michael Cohen.
Jones was found to possess “'efficiently and meticulously reviewed' tens of thousands of things over a period of 4 months and made privilege designations that weren't objected to by the parties,” prosecutors wrote.
They also quoted Judge Kimba Wood, who appointed Jones to review the Cohen materials, as saying Jones “performed her review with extraordinary efficiency and speed, while giving the parties a full opportunity to be heard.”
In a footnote, prosecutors wrote that none of the parties believe Jones faces a conflict because she joined a firm, “Bracewell and Giuliani,” which Giuliani had left six months before her July 2016 arrival. They added that a partner at the firm who assisted Jones within the privilege review of Cohen materials will recuse himself because he features a personal relation with Giuliani.
So far, prosecutors have said they need successfully downloaded 11 electronic devices belonging to Giuliani and returned them to him. they assert seven more devices belonging to Giuliani et al. at his firm, Giuliani Partners LLC, would require longer to unlock because they lack a passcode.
Giuliani, a Republican and former mayor of latest York City, has not been charged with a criminal offense . He has said all of his activities in Ukraine were conducted on behalf of Trump. At the time, Giuliani was leading a campaign to press Ukraine for an investigation into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, before Biden was elected president.c
