WASHINGTON (AP) — Rudy Giuliani, who as a member of Donald Trump’s legal team sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in battleground states, was recently interviewed by the office’s investigators from the Justice Department’s special counsel, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The interview was voluntary and not before a grand jury, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The person did not say what questions investigators asked.
The interview is a further sign of special counsel Jack Smith’s intense investigative activity as his team of prosecutors looks into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the election results in the weeks leading up to the election. to the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Smith filed a separate case earlier this month accusing Trump of illegally withholding classified documents at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.
As Trump’s lawyer, Giuliani pushed bogus legal challenges to the results of the presidential election. The legal team filed lawsuits in battleground states raising unsupported claims of massive voter fraud, though officials, including Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, said no such widespread problems existed.
Giuliani’s efforts have made him a key figure in the investigations. He was interviewed last year by a House committee investigating the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack and by prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, who have been investigating efforts to subvert that election. been
Justice Department prosecutors have been examining for months what role Trump’s legal advisers played in working to overturn the election. Last July, John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who helped Trump’s efforts to challenge the election results, reported that federal agents had seized his phone.
A spokesman for the special counsel’s office did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
CNN first reported the interview with Giuliani.
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