New top story from Time: Long Before Raiding Rudy Giuliani’s Home, Investigators Sought ‘Everything’ From His Associates

https://ift.tt/2PFzPTi

By the time federal investigators searched the Manhattan home of Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday, they had amassed a trove of evidence from his associates in Ukraine, focusing most intently on Giuliani’s ties to Ukrainian oligarchs, three witnesses in the case told TIME.

The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described lengthy interviews with investigators in Europe, Manhattan and Washington, starting in the fall of 2019 and continuing through February. The calls and meetings with investigators grew more frequent and “intense” after Joe Biden’s victory in last fall’s presidential election, says one of the witnesses. Two of the witnesses say they were working with Giuliani while cooperating with federal investigators.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment on the case. Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment about his former associates in Ukraine assisting federal prosecutors. In a statement released Wednesday, the former Mayor of New York City and personal lawyer for President Donald Trump called the investigation against him an “unjustified and unethical attack,” and said he “can demonstrate that his conduct as a lawyer and a citizen was absolutely legal and ethical.”

The investigation of Giuliani grew out of a federal probe into two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were arrested in Oct. 2019 and charged with violating campaign finance law. Both men have denied the charges and are awaiting trial.

Before they were arrested, Parnas and Fruman assisted Giuliani in his quest to connect Biden, then a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, to alleged acts of corruption in Ukraine. Drawing on a cast of oligarchs, former prosecutors and alleged Russian agents in Ukraine, Giuliani and his allies spent more than a year trying to tarnish Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company while his father was Vice President.

The pressure campaign to coerce Ukrainian officials into providing damaging material about the Bidens ultimately resulted in Trump’s first impeachment by the House of Representatives in Dec. 2019. The impeachment inquiry found that Trump abused his office while assisting Giuliani’s mission against Biden. The Republican-controlled Senate later acquitted Trump of these charges.

While the impeachment inquiry was underway that fall, federal investigators began questioning Giuliani’s associates about the smear campaign against the Bidens in Ukraine, wanting to know “everything – every meeting, every text,” says one of people they spoke to at the time.

What interested investigators most of all was the relationship between Giuliani and the Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash, who is wanted in the U.S. on corruption charges, this witness says. “The main things that interested them was: How would you assess, how would you describe, what do you know about his communication with Ukrainian oligarchs,” says this witness, who spoke repeatedly to investigators over the course of more than a year. “Firtash was of course their main focus, without a doubt.”

A lawyer for Firtash declined to comment when reached by TIME on Thursday.

As TIME reported in a previous investigation, Firtash developed close ties with Giuliani’s associates in the summer of 2019, hiring several of them to work on his legal team. Firtash’s goal was to avoid extradition to Chicago, where he faces charges related to an alleged scheme to bribe officials in India. From his home in Vienna, Firtash has denied those charges and insisted they are politically motivated.

As part of his defense, Firtash hired two lawyers in July 2019 who are close associates of Giuliani: Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova, a married couple known for their staunch allegiance to Trump. The couple then sought Firtash’s help in their effort to discredit the Biden family.

The nexus between Giuliani, Firtash and the two U.S. lawyers with ties to the 45th President was among the issues that interested prosecutors the most, according to two of the Giuliani associates questioned by federal investigators.

On Wednesday morning, while serving a search warrant at Giuliani’s apartment in Manhattan, federal agents also arrived at Toensing and diGenova’s home outside Washington with a warrant for Toensing’s phone.

In a statement, the couple’s law firm said that Toensing was not a target of the investigation. “She has always conducted herself and her law practice according to the highest legal and ethical standards,” the statement said. “She would have been happy to turn over any relevant documents. All they had to do was ask.”

Comments

New top story from Time: These Moms Work as Doctors and Scientists. But They’ve Also Taken On Another Job: Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation Online

https://ift.tt/3tT3UwO Last March, friends and neighbors began stopping Emily Smith in her town outside of Waco, Texas, with questions about the coronavirus. An epidemiologist at Baylor University, Smith knows all too well how viruses are transmitted. But as the wife of a pastor and as a woman of faith, she also holds a trusted position in her community, and she would speak to those who asked about why she personally thought social distancing was a moral choice. As the weeks wore on, the questions kept coming: “What does flatten the curve mean?” “Is it safe for my child to kick a soccer ball outside with a friend?” So she started a Facebook page and called herself the Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist. She adopted “Love thy neighbor” as the page’s credo. Smith wrote from the perspective of a scientist but also a wife and mother. She recently explained, for example, why churches should still continue to refrain from holding in-person services even though Texas has lifted i...

Enhancing Safety on Franklin Street

Enhancing Safety on Franklin Street By Mark Dreger We're excited to share an update on the Franklin Street Quick-Build Project, an effort to enhance traffic safety on Franklin Street between Broadway and Lombard Streets. This roadway stretch was the site of 38 collisions between 2017 and 2021, including the tragic loss of a Sherman Elementary School paraeducator in November 2021. Our data-driven approach focuses on several key safety improvements, and we are ready to share the evaluation results and the next steps to bring further safety changes to Franklin Street. The project includes the implementation of a suite of safety measures focused on the intersections where neighborhood stakeholders expressed most concerns during the outreach process. Painted safety zones (PSZs) have been installed to increase pedestrian visibility at crosswalks by keeping the corners of intersections clear. Slow-turn wedges have been added to encourage drivers to turn at safer speeds...

New top story from Time: Dear Parents, It’s Not Just You. Raising a Teen Now Is Really Hard

https://ift.tt/3ae0nRK A version of this article appeared in this week’s It’s Not Just You newsletter. SUBSCRIBE HERE to have It’s Not Just You delivered to your inbox every Sunday. And send comments to Susanna@Time.com Well hello! I’m so glad you’re here. This week: a letter to parents of teens, many of whom are struggling, a selection of expert pandemic parenting advice, plus some evidence of human kindness. DEAR PARENTS: IT’S NOT JUST YOU, THIS IS HARD. Over the last few months, I’ve gotten so many emails from parents of teens—both readers of this newsletter and friends. And while the details vary, I can hear the thrum of fear in each one as they describe a child who seems to be slowly crumbling, or is in crisis. So this is a letter for all of you: You’re not alone. You’re not the only one feeling lost or like you’re the worst parent you know. So many of us have been where you are now, especially in an unimaginably fractured and stressful year, one that has made...

New top story from Time: Chris Paul on the Legacy of the NBA Strike, 1 Year Later

https://ift.tt/3jiooN4 Even before Aug. 26, 2020—the date, one year ago today, on which the sports world shut down in protest of violence against unarmed Black people—NBA players were having difficulty processing the shooting of Jacob Blake . The video of police in Kenosha, Wis. shooting and wounding Blake emerged during the NBA’s 2020 postseason while players were isolated at Walt Disney World in a COVID-19 “bubble.” The surreal August playoffs were taking place after the season had shut down in March because of the pandemic. “It was weighing heavy on a lot of guys,” says Chris Paul , who was the president of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) for eight years before he stepped aside this summer. Paul told TIME in an interview this week that when George Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020, he was home and could explain to his children Chris II and Camryn, then 11 and 8, what was unfolding on television. “Whereas when this situation happened, with Jacob Blake,...

New top story from Time: The United States vs. Billie Holiday Is a Messy But Passionate Tribute to an American Legend

https://ift.tt/3uDiuKn Almost everyone has feelings about Billie Holiday , many of them strong. But no one can own her, and if there’s any supreme conclusion to be drawn from Lee Daniels ’ disorganized but passionate drama The United States vs. Billie Holiday, it’s that. Daniels’ movie focuses on an underexplored angle of Holiday’s life, one that dovetails with all the things we know about her: Holiday had a traumatic childhood—she was raped at age 10. She was repeatedly attracted to controlling, abusive men. Her emotional vulnerability spurred a heroin habit she couldn’t kick. But her personal problems were intensified by a force determined to crush her, specifically the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which pursued her with an obsessive vengeance that surely hastened her death, in 1959 at age 44. Holiday’s drug use wasn’t even the agency’s main problem with her: what truly infuriated them was her refusal to stop performing one of her signature numbers, “Strange Fruit,” a pr...

New top story from Time: ‘We Share the Ideals of Democracy.’ How the Milk Tea Alliance Is Brewing Solidarity Among Activists in Asia and Beyond

https://ift.tt/3eie5EZ On China’s National Day this year, Thai student Bunkueanun “Francis” Paothong performed a song outside the Chinese embassy in Bangkok. “Arise! Ye who would not be slaves again,” a video posted on Twitter showed him operatically singing into the humid evening. The words famously open China’s national anthem, “The March of the Volunteers.” But they also appear in “Glory to Hong Kong”—the unofficial anthem of Hong Kong’s democracy movement —and it was this that Francis was singing at the Oct. 1 protest. “For Hong Kong, may glory reign!” he intoned. Written and composed anonymously last year, the song has come to represent Hong Kong’s youth-driven rebellion against Beijing. But its four stanzas are now also sung in Thailand where protesters against the military-backed government and the monarchy are not only adopting tactics of resistance from their Hong Kong counterparts but are also cross-promoting causes. Though their demands may be different, ...

New top story from Time: Why It’s Crucial to Talk to Kids About Gender Pronouns

https://ift.tt/3fKr8kO It’s only been a week since Katherine Locke’s newest book was published, and they’ve already received messages from parents of trans and nonbinary children saying how much it spoke to them. The book, What Are Your Words? , tells the story of a kid named Ari, who is gender fluid and nonbinary and tries out different pronouns depending on how they feel on different days. Aimed at readers aged 4 to 8, the book follows Ari and his nonbinary uncle Lior as they try to figure out what words fit them. “I certainly didn’t grow up talking about pronouns that weren’t she/her, he/him, and I didn’t know how to have these conversations either,” says Locke, who released their first picture book last November and has previously written novels for young adults and adults. “It’s been really gratifying to see people embrace the book and its concepts.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] With colorful illustrations by Anne Passchier, the book emphasizes that pronouns are...

New top story from Time: What Jeff Bezos’ Philanthropy Tells Us About His New Priorities—and What Change They May Bring

https://ift.tt/3zFiTgP Money is power, so when the world’s richest man begins to spend his fortune, it’s worth paying attention to what he’s doing. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and newly minted pseudo-astronaut, has a lot of money to spend . On July 19, the day before he took a 10 minute joyride 66 miles (106 km) above the earth, his wealth increased by $13 billion , thanks to a bump in the Amazon’s share price. That flight cost $5.5 billion which, as global change groups hastened to point out, could have paid for a lot of global change . But for Bezos, it was not quite half the previous day’s wages. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Bezos announced in his post-flight press conference that he was donating $100 million to two high profile founders of non-profits: the celebrity chef (and former TIME cover subject) José Andrés , and Van Jones , the former Obama green jobs czar, CNN commentator and prominent climate change activist, to do as he said “what they want with.”...

New top story from Time: The Fight for a $15 Minimum Wage Is Our Selma

https://ift.tt/37oF2Ez After the public lynching of George Floyd last summer, his cry of “I can’t breathe” galvanized a movement for Black lives that won majority support among Americans . Floyd wasn’t the only one gasping for breath. While Americans watched a police officer choke the life out of Floyd, we also witnessed Black Americans contracting a deadly respiratory disease at three times the rate of our white neighbors , according to an August report from the National Urban League. The growing public consensus that we as a nation must address systemic racism has led to serious soul-searching in families, churches, universities, corporations and political life. But just as the Selma campaign became a symbol during the civil rights movement of the need for legislation to expand voting rights, the $15 an hour minimum wage proposal in Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan represents the possibility that our government can take decisive action to make racial justice real tod...

New top story from Time: WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Accused of Conspiring With LulzSec and Anonymous Hackers

https://ift.tt/3hZ0cN4 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange conspired with hackers affiliated with the “Anonymous” and “LulzSec” groups, which have been linked to numerous cyber attacks around the world, according to new indictment by the U.S. Justice Department. Assange, who’s detained in the U.K. on a U.S. extradition request, gave the leader of LulzSec a list of targets to hack in 2012 and told this person that the most influential release of hacked materials would be from the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency or the New York Times, according to a statement Wednesday from the Justice Department. The LulzSec leader was cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the time, according to the statement. An Anonymous and LulzSec-affiliated hacker stole emails through a data breach of an American intelligence consulting company that were published in WikiLeaks, according to the statement. Assange indirectly asked that hacker to spam that company a...

My precise view

Search This Blog