Daily Beast: “Since at least October 2019, federal investigations have been looking into Rudy Giuliani’s effort to convince the White House and a reluctant State Department to grant a visa to a former Ukraine official, according to two people briefed on the matter. These sources tell The Daily Beast that the visa issue is one aspect of the federal probe into whether Giuliani’s efforts during the Trump-Ukraine saga constituted illegal lobbying on behalf of foreign officials or individuals. According to people with knowledge of the matter, including Giuliani’s own legal team, federal investigators are also investigating his attempt to get the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired. The feds are reportedly working to determine if Giuliani’s Ukraine work ran afoul of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which demands Americans register with the Justice Department when lobbying on behalf of foreign interests. The former New York mayor and Donald Trump attorney and confidant has yet to be charged with a crime in this investigation, but the probe already resulted in the raid on Giuliani’s office and apartment late last month.”

“Several attorneys for Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment on this story. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York declined to comment. Giuliani’s efforts to secure a visa for at least one Ukrainian official, the controversial former prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, became well known during the first Trump impeachment trial. Shokin’s name appeared as one of 12 people whose communications with Giuliani prosecutors sought under a search warrant executed by the FBI at the former mayor’s apartment late last month. Giuliani first became involved in attempts to secure a visa for Shokin in early 2019 when he invited the former Ukrainian prosecutor to New York to interview him about his allegations of corruption against Biden and his son, Hunter. The failed effort to secure a visa was a flashpoint between Giuliani and Yovanovitch and provided fodder for his campaign to have her fired.”