AN FBI raid on Rudy Giuliani's apartment may have been spurred by a voicemail hinting he had a burner phone, reports claim.
Donald Trump's ex-lawyer told a business associate's attorney to call him on a "soon to be gotten rid of number", legal papers allege.
Federal agents probing a dirt-digging operation in Ukraine are said to have been seeking warrants for months to examine Giuliani's phone activity.
Yesterday they seized electronic equipment from his New York City apartment and also searched fellow lawyer Victoria Toensing's home.
A report in Newsweek suggested a voicemail from November 2019 could have a bearing on the searches.
Transcripts made public in December reveal a message left for Joseph Bundy, lawyer for suspected Hunter Biden dirt-digger Lev Parnas.
According to court papers, the former NYC mayor said in the voicemail: "Hi Joe, it’s Rudy Giuliani.
“I’m calling, uh, to see if we can talk either about or with Lev.
“I have my lawyer with me, but you can call me back at [REDACTED]. That’s [REDACTED].
“That’s the soon to be gotten rid of number.”
Bundy, who filed the transcript along with a court motion on behalf of his client, told Newsweek: “I can confirm the veracity of the statements that I made in that reply motion.”
He declined to comment further on matters related to Giuliani.
Last night Giuliani's son Andrew condemned the raid as "disgusting and absurd".
He said outside his father’s Manhattan apartment building: “If this can happen to the former president’s lawyer, this can happen to any American. Enough is enough.”
And Donald Trump praised Giuliani as "a patriot who loves America"., claiming the "unfair" raid was "double standards".
It marked a step up in the criminal investigation into his alleged dealings in Ukraine.
The United States Attorney’s office in Manhattan and the FBI had been seeking a search warrant for Giuliani's phone for months, the New York Times reported.
The Justice Department repeatedly sought to block such a warrant under the Trump administration.
The path was reportedly cleared after Merrick B. Garland was confirmed as Joe Biden’s attorney general in March.
Another search warrant was executed on Wednesday at attorney Victoria Toensing's house in Washington DC.
She worked closely with Giuliani, the Times claimed.
The long-running investigation into Giuliani is focused on whether he illegally lobbied the White House on behalf of Ukrainian officials and oligarchs in 2019.
It is also investigating whether these Ukrainian officials were helping Giuliani dig for dirt on Trump's rival Joe Biden at the time.
Giuliani had been central to efforts to unearth wrongdoing on the part of the president's son Hunter Biden.
He passed on the infamous hard drive containing Hunter Biden's emails about links to Ukraine and China.
Hunter himself is now facing a criminal tax probe by the Justice Department.
The Giuliani investigation grew out of a case against two Soviet-born men who were said to be aiding him in the search for information on Joe and Hunter Biden.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were charged with unrelated crimes in 2019 and are currently awaiting trial.
As well as investigating Giuliani's business dealings, the probe is looking at his potential role in encouraging the Trump administration to oust the American ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.
This issue was the subject of the former president's first impeachment trial in early 2020.
Giuliani allegedly saw Yovanovitch as an obstacle to the investigation into the Bidens.
Prosecutors are exploring whether Giuliani was working for Ukrainian officials who wanted Yovanovitch gone for their own reasons.
A search warrant is not an indication of any wrongdoing on Giuliani's part.
The probe into Giuliani, one of Trump's most prominent allies, stalled last year due to a dispute over investigative tactics as Trump unsuccessfully sought reelection.
The Justice Department tries to avoid taking aggressive investigative actions within 60 days of an election if it is believed it could influence the vote.
It was also paused amid Giuliani's role in contesting the 2020 election and pushing Trump's legal challenge to the results.
More details on Wednesday's search were not immediately available.
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