Klobuchar urges feds to investigate Giuliani

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Thursday urged the Justice Department and Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to open investigations into President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani following the arrests of two of Giuliani’s associates.

Klobuchar’s appeal to the two agencies came hours after news broke that Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas had been arrested on campaign finance violation charges. The two foreign-born Giuliani associates were arrested while attempting to leave the country Wednesday night.

{mosads}“As the Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee with jurisdiction over federal elections, I write to express significant concern regarding the recent arrests of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, associates of Rudy Giuliani, for violations of U.S. campaign finance laws and to urge you to investigate who is financing Mr. Giuliani’s efforts and determine whether he also violated the law by soliciting foreign assistance in U.S. elections,” Klobuchar, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, wrote to the agencies.

“While Mr. Giuliani has stated that he is not paid by the federal government or the Trump Campaign, we have no information regarding who is funding his work. Mr. Giuliani’s actions on behalf of President Trump may constitute political activity, and yet reports indicate that there are no Federal Election Commission filings of Mr. Giuliani’s services being paid for by the campaign. These discrepancies point to possible criminal or civil violations of federal campaign finance laws, which is why I am asking you to investigate the sources of Mr. Giuliani’s financing,” she added.

The two indicted men were involved in Giuliani’s efforts on behalf of President Trump to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, also a 2020 Democratic presidential contender.

Giuliani’s efforts to convince the Ukrainian government to launch investigations into Biden have become a focus of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into the president.

However, Parnas and Fruman’s indictment does not relate to their work involving Ukraine, and instead involved money allegedly funneled illegally to a pro-Trump super PAC.

Giuliani and other Trump officials have refused to comply with the House’s impeachment inquiry, while leaving open the possibility of cooperating with the Republican-held Senate’s investigation.