FBI whistleblower suspected Giuliani was a Russian 'dupe' – but DOJ stifled probe: report

Travis Gettys
September 1, 2023

(Photo by Mandel Ngan for AFP)

An FBI whistleblower came forward with his suspicions that Rudy Giuliani “may have been compromised” by Russian intelligence while working as Donald Trump's campaign lawyer and adviser, but he claims the bureau stifled his concerns

FBI agent Jonathan Buma sent a 22-page letter in July to the Senate Judiciary Committee alleging that the former New York City mayor had been used as an asset by a Ukrainian oligarch with ties to Kremlin intelligence and other Russian operatives to spread disinformation in an effort to discredit Joe Biden, reported Mother Jones.

"A source familiar with his work tells Mother Jones that other potential FBI whistleblowers who participated in the investigation involving Giuliani have consulted the same lawyer as Buma and might meet with congressional investigators in coming weeks," reported Dan Friedman and David Corn. "That attorney, Scott Horton, declined to comment."

Giuliani was indicted last month on racketeering charges in Georgia, where he just lost a defamation case, and he faces a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems and a rape complaint filed by a former assistant, but Buma's statement suggests Trump's former campaign lawyer may have somehow avoided even more trouble.

"It is widely known that Giuliani tried mightily to unearth and disseminate dirt on Biden in Ukraine — particularly regarding the unfounded allegation that as vice president Biden squashed an investigation of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company for which his son Hunter was a director," Friedman and Corn wrote. "This smear campaign led to Trump’s first impeachment and resulted in a federal investigation into whether Giuliani violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Prosecutors ended that probe last year."

Buma alleges that officials with the Department of Justice and the FBI blocked his efforts to investigate Giuliani's ties to Ukrainian developer Pavel Fuks, who federal agents determined to be a “co-opted asset” of Russian intelligence, and the FBI agent claims that Fuks maintained an indirect connection to Giuliani through Ukrainian diplomatic official Andriy Telizhenko after 2019.

"Giuliani’s role in Trump’s coup attempt and his string of public humiliations may overshadow the Ukrainian chapter in Giuliani’s downfall," wrote Friedman and Corn. "But, according to Buma and various U.S. intelligence findings, Giuliani apparently was a dupe — a useful idiot — for suspected Russian operatives and propagandists. And the bureau, Buma says, investigated this — until it didn’t."

Buma also reveals that he examined whether Russian operatives or assets assisted Giuliani's 2020 effort to make a film about Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine, which has become a central focus of House Republicans after they retook the majority at the start of this year -- but the FBI whistleblower says they passed on his findings when approached in April.

"Earlier this year, Buma watched with keen interest as the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee geared up for public hearings into the Biden Administration’s alleged political 'weaponizing' of the F.B.I. The Republicans claimed that the Bureau had relentlessly pursued former President Trump and his allies while neglecting leads about the Bidens," the New Yorker reported two weeks ago, when Buma's letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee first leaked.

"In April, Buma reached out to [House Judiciary Committee chair Jim] Jordan’s office, offering public testimony as a whistle-blower," the New Yorker added. "He later gave a detailed phone interview to two former federal agents whom the committee had hired to investigate what its conservative members call 'the Biden family business.'"