By Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) -Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who helped to amplify former President Donald Trump’s false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors seeking documents about payments he received from Trump or his presidential campaign, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The subpoena, which was issued in November, also asks Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal attorney, to provide testimony, said the person, who declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The nature of the inquiry by the U.S. attorney in Washington D.C., which began before Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed to oversee investigations into Trump, remains largely under wraps.
“Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani is without-a-doubt one of the greatest prosecutors in American history, and I challenge anyone to argue with me otherwise,” a spokesperson for Giuliani said in a Twitter direct message to a Reuters reporter on Monday night.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The source said the subpoena sought, among other things, copies of any retainer agreements between Trump and Giuliani, or the Trump campaign and Giuliani, and records of payments and who made those payments.
In December, a District of Columbia attorney ethics committee said Giuliani violated at least one attorney ethics rule in his work on a failed lawsuit by Trump challenging the 2020 election results.
Giuliani’s New York state law license was suspended in June 2021 after a state appeals court found he had made “demonstrably false and misleading” statements that widespread voter fraud undermined the 2020 election won by Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Ross Colvin and Christopher Cushing)
