By Rudy Giuliani, a former top lawyer for Donald Trump, met in recent weeks with federal prosecutors who are investigating the ex-president for his efforts to reverse his loss in the 2020 election, NBC News confirmed Wednesday.
Giuliani led the legal fight by Trump’s campaign to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the election during the weeks before it was confirmed by a joint session of Congress that began meeting on Jan. 6, 2021.
The news of Giuliani’s voluntary interview with special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors came before his investigators met Wednesday in Atlanta with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as part of that criminal probe.
Trump, in an early January 2021 phone call, unsuccessfully pressured Raffensperger to “find” him enough votes in Georgia to overturn Biden’s victory in that state. Georgia was one of several states that gave Biden his margin of victory in the Electoral College, the body that actually selects American presidents after the popular vote.
The call to Raffensperger occurred days before the joint session of Congress convened to certify the Electoral College results. The joint session was interrupted for hours by a mob of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Raffensperger’s office in a statement after his meeting with prosecutors Wednesday said, “Georgia is a national leader in election security, integrity, and access.”
“Failed candidates and their enablers have peddled false narratives about our elections for personal gain for a long time and the voters of Georgia aren’t buying it,” the office said.
Ted Goodman, a spokesman for Giuliani, said the former New York mayor met with Smith’s prosecutors along with his own attorney Robert Costello in recent weeks, NBC News reported.
“The appearance was entirely voluntary and conducted in a professional manner,” Goodman said.
CNN first reported that Giuliani had met with Smith’s investigators.
Costello last August told CNBC that Giuliani had been named a target of a separate criminal probe by a Georgia prosecutor who is investigating Trump for his attempt to undo his loss in 2020 in the state. The prosecutor, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, is expected to announce coming weeks whether she is filing charges against Trump and his allies in the election-reversal effort.
Giuliani in December 2020 spoke to Georgia lawmakers and made a series of claims about purported election fraud as he urged them to appoint a slate of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College.
Earlier this month, Smith obtained a Florida federal court indictment against Trump charging him with dozens of criminal counts related to his retention of classified records after he left the White House, and his alleged efforts with aide Walt Nauta to hide them from government officials.
Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has pleaded not guilty in that case, where he is accused of keeping hundreds of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
