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: How the Tech Industry Can Help to Strengthen Democracy Over the Next Decade

https://ift.tt/3ikqTgX Over the next decade, democratic governments will be tested by the rise of China . They will have to prove to their citizens and those of developing nations that democracy can deliver widespread economic growth, stability and security in the modern world. Once again there will be a global competition between two very different forms of government, and right now the outcome is uncertain. For democracies to win this contest, they will need to leverage software to deliver more prosperity to a wider cross section of their populations, while still preserving individual rights. They have powerful potential allies in the private tech sector who could be of service building and selling industry-leading software to democratic governments. They should be intrinsically motivated because helping preserve democracy also safeguards the marketplace rules these companies depend upon to generate financial returns. In the following 10 years, the chief executive officers o...

New top story from Time: Simone Biles Pulls Out of Olympic Vault and Uneven Bars Finals

https://ift.tt/378sUXI Simone Biles has withdrawn from the event finals for vault and uneven bars at the Tokyo Olympics. USA Gymnastics announced the news in a statement on July 31, adding that Biles will continue to be evaluated to determine if she will compete in the women’s floor exercise and balance beam finals. The floor exercise will take place on Aug. 2 and the balance beam final will be held on Aug. 3 After further consultation with medical staff, Simone Biles has decided to withdraw from the event finals for vault and the uneven bars. She will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether to compete in the finals for floor exercise and balance beam. pic.twitter.com/kWqgZJK4LJ — USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) July 31, 2021 Biles pulled out of the team and individual all-around competitions , citing the need to focus on her mental health . She has also shared that she is experienced the “ twisties ,” a condition in which gymnasts lose their sense of orientation...

New top story from Time: ‘I Choose to Do More.’ Olympian Ashleigh Johnson Embraces Her Role As Water Polo Pioneer

https://ift.tt/3i8slne When Ashleigh Johnson —the 6’1″ star goalkeeper for America’s “best-team-you’ve-likely-never-heard-of-but-totally-should”—was growing up swimming and playing water polo in Miami, she heard racist stereotypes about Black people and pools. Other kids, parents, even people she didn’t know would tell her they were surprised she could swim. Or ask her if Black people could float. She was sometimes the only Black person around the pool. “When you’re young, you don’t really have the protective mechanisms to not internalize that story,” says Johnson, 26. “I brought those questions to my mother, and she’s like, ‘O.K., that’s not real.’ But I still held on to it a little bit. Because those are my teammates, or maybe a coach I came into contact with, who would limit my belief in myself. And I had to learn you write your own story. And the things that make you different are your strengths.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Johnson, who in Rio became the first Blac...

New top story from Time: Hurricane Ida Winds Hit 150 MPH Ahead of Louisiana Strike

https://ift.tt/3jmdoyl NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Ida rapidly grew in strength early Sunday, becoming a dangerous Category 4 hurricane just hours before hitting the Louisiana coast while emergency officials in the region grappled with opening shelters for displaced evacuees despite the risks of spreading the coronavirus. As Ida moved through some of the warmest ocean water in the world in the northern Gulf of Mexico, its top winds grew by 45 mph (72 kph) to 150 mph (230 kph) in five hours. The system was expected to make landfall Sunday afternoon, set to arrive on the exact date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The hurricane center said Ida is forecast to hit at 155 mph (250 kph), just 1 mph shy of a Category 5 hurricane. Only four Category 5 hurricanes have made landfall in the United States: Michael in 2018, Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969 and the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. Both Michael and Andrew were u...

New top story from Time: Simone Biles Has the Twisties. What Are They, and Why Are They So Dangerous?

https://ift.tt/3xcPDN4 After completing her first vault in the women’s gymnastics’ team competition in Tokyo, the reigning Olympic all-around champion looked worried. Simone Biles didn’t seem in pain, and wasn’t limping or grimacing. But she was seriously concerned. Biles was supposed to do two and a half twists in the air after launching off the vault but once airborne, she lost her bearings and only completed one and a half. She immediately knew something was wrong. And every gymnast can relate. Biles has since said that the combination of mental stress and pressure leading up to the Olympics have affected her confidence. But, more importantly, she felt a disconnect between her mind and body; her body was no longer doing what she wanted it to. Whatever the trigger, gymnasts call this the “twisties.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “If you say ‘twisties’ every gymnast knows what you’re talking about,” says Jordyn Wieber, member of the 2012 Olympics gold medal team a...

New top story from Time: John le Carré’s Silverview Is Not the Defining Final Chapter of a Literary Career

https://ift.tt/3BMuXOI When John le Carré died last December, his obituarists struck a common theme: here was a master spy novelist who, despite selling millions of books and having his work adapted for television and film , never received the recognition he deserved as a literary giant. Over six decades, le Carré drew upon his brief career in British intelligence to chronicle the decline of the U.K. as a global power and critique what he saw as an arrogant and corrupt Western neo-imperialism, typically through the perspective of those in the “secret world” of spying. His archetypal heroes were not James Bonds or Jack Reachers but often disillusioned men driven by moral values they are not certain they still believe in. What compels people to serve their country, or betray it, was a consistent theme in his work. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But just as Graham Greene —another former spy turned novelist—divided his work into “entertainments” and serious fare, so can one...

New top story from Time: Suicide Bombing Wounds 20 People During Palm Sunday Mass in Indonesia

https://ift.tt/3flpt5b MAKASSAR, Indonesia — Two attackers blew themselves up outside a packed Roman Catholic cathedral during a Palm Sunday Mass on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, wounding at least 20 people, police said. A video obtained by The Associated Press showed body parts scattered near a burning motorbike at the gates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province. Rev. Wilhelmus Tulak, a priest at the church, said he had just finished celebrating Palm Sunday Mass when a loud bang shocked his congregation. He said the blast went off at about 10:30 a.m. as a first batch of churchgoers was walking out of the church and another group was coming in. He said security guards at the church were suspicious of two men on a motorcycle who wanted to enter the building and when they went to confront them, one of the men detonated his explosives. Police later said both attackers were killed instantly and evidence collected at the sc...

New top story from Time: The World’s First Malaria Vaccine—and What it Means for the Future of Pandemic Response

https://ift.tt/3uQFdD3 On Oct. 6, the World Health Organization recommended use of the first vaccine to fight malaria . The decision is momentous and highly anticipated for many reasons: among them is that this is the first vaccine to help reduce the risk of deadly severe malaria in young children in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease remains a leading killer. The vaccine offers hope that there can be a circle of learning from one pandemic to the next. Malaria, our oldest pandemic, may offer insights on how we can survive contemporary scourges like COVID-19. Malaria evolved at least 2.5 million years ago and first infected humans in rural parts of Africa. It then spread to all continents save Antarctica—notably, killing off armies ranging from those trying to conquer ancient Rome to those battling to control the Pacific in World War II. Malaria, according to historians, may have killed more people than any other pandemic. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Malaria changed ...

New top story from Time: This Is the White House’s Plan to Take on Facebook

https://ift.tt/3oEQl4Y Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony this week on Capitol Hill turned the Klieg lights on the social media platform’s algorithm that, by design, amplifies dangerous disinformation and lures people to spend more and more time scrolling. The question now is what the Biden Administration will do about it. White House officials know that the momentum generated by Haugen’s testimony will fade over time and the window of popular support for major structural changes to the technology landscape will close. “The White House, like everyone else in Washington, recognizes that the tide is high and the time for action is now,” Tim Wu, special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy, said in a statement to TIME. White House officials are “distressed” by Haugen’s revelations that social media companies’ products are targeting children, Wu said, and “the era of ‘let’s just trust the platforms to solve it themselves’ needs to be ...

New top story from Time: Labor Department Officials Frustrated at White House Over COVID-19 Vaccine and Testing Mandate

https://ift.tt/39WJJGJ When President Joe Biden directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Sept. 9 to impose strict COVID-19 vaccination and testing protocols on large businesses , the OSHA employees were ready. It marked the first time in nearly five years that the small agency had the opportunity to fulfill its mission to protect workers across industries from “recognized serious hazards.” But it also highlighted tensions between OSHA and the White House, exposing simmering resentments over how the White House has approached working with the Department of Labor during the pandemic, according to three former top OSHA officials. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “It’s been a very frustrating nine months for OSHA,” says Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab, referencing a series of instructions from the Biden Administration, including the most recent plan for a vaccine and testing mandate. “This whole thing was basically th...

My precise view

Search This Blog