Washington Post and the New York Times RETRACT Russian collusion stories claiming Rudy Giuliani had been warned by the FBI he was a target of Kremlin disinformation
The Washington Post and New York Times have been forced to correct a key claim in their coverage of Rudy Giuliani's arrest that he received an FBI briefing warning him he was the target of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Both papers had claimed the former New York City Mayor was briefed by FBI agents that he was being used by Russia to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in the leadup to the 2020 Presidential election.
A prominent correction at the top of the Washington Post story was added on Saturday.
'An earlier version of this story, published Thursday, incorrectly reported that One America News was warned by the FBI that it was the target of a Russian influence operation.
'That version also said the FBI had provided a similar warning to Rudolph W. Giuliani, which he has since disputed.
'This version has been corrected to remove assertions that OAN and Giuliani received the warnings,' the correction added.
The New York Times quickly followed suit, placing a retraction at the bottom of their story.
'An earlier version of this article misstated whether Rudolph W. Giuliani received a formal warning from the F.B.I. about Russian disinformation,' The Times said in its correction posted at the bottom of the story online. 'Mr. Giuliani did not receive such a so-called defensive briefing.'
Giuliani's home on Manhattan's Upper East Side was surrounded by agents at 6am on Wednesday morning, as part of an investigation into his dealings in Ukraine.
The 76-year-old slammed the raid on his home as 'illegal' and 'unconstitutional'.
Rudy Giuliani's Upper East Side apartment was raided at 6am on Wednesday as part of a DoJ probe into his links to Ukraine (file photo)
The Washington Post issued a prominent correction to its story on Giuliani receiving an FBI briefing that he was the target of a Russian disinformation campaign
The New York Times also had to correct its story on Giuliani being warned he was the target of a disinformation campaign
The correction published on the Washington Post website on Saturday appeared at the top of their online story
The New York Times chose to place the correction at the bottom of their story
CNN media correspondent Oliver Darcy described the retractions as 'black eyes to both newsrooms'.
The two newspapers have aggressively chased connections between Giuliani and the Ukraine, focusing on the former Mayor's efforts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in the lead-up to the 2020 Presidential election.
On Saturday, Rudy Giuliani was spotted out with his alleged girlfriend in New York City.
stepped out on Saturday in Manhattan with Maria Ryan - his rumored 56-year-old girlfriend and former alleged mistress.
Giuliani, who was wearing a face mask, was seen arriving at a café close to his apartment on the Upper East Side where he was met by Ryan.
The pair arrived in separate cars but left the café together. Giuliani appeared to be accompanied by an unidentified younger woman as he left the café.
Ryan, who stepped down as CEO of a New Hampshire hospital in December, has reportedly been dating Trump's personal lawyer since 2018.
Giuliani has previously denied allegations he had an affair with Ryan while he was still married to his third wife Judy Giuliani.
The Feds seized electronic devices from his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan during the road on Wednesday morning
Rudy Giuliani was spotted leaving a café on the Upper East Side where he dined with his alleged girlfriend Dr Maria Ryan on Saturday
Dr Maria Ryan met Giuliani at the café after arriving there separately. The pair left in the same vehicle after emerging at different times
Ryan, who stepped down as CEO of a New Hampshire hospital in December, was spotted behind the wheel of the car as they left
Their sighting together came just days after the FBI executed a search warrant on his Manhattan home as part of an investigation into his dealings in Ukraine.
Giuliani, who is the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former mayor of NYC, has already slammed the 6am raid as 'illegal' and 'unconstitutional'.
He has sought to discredit the federal investigation, saying the raid - which he said involved seven FBI agents - was unnecessary because he offered for two years to provide prosecutors his electronic devices and to 'talk it over with them'.
'They won't explain to me what they're looking into for two years,' Giuliani told Fox News' Tucker Carlson on Thursday night.
Giuliani's lawyer, Robert Costello, has previously said proposed meetings between investigators and Giuliani's legal team didn't take place because prosecutors wouldn't agree to a precondition that they first disclose more about the probe.
According to the warrant, investigators are seeking to review Giuliani's phones and computers for communications with more than a dozen people, including a high-ranking prosecutor in Ukraine.
They also are searching for communications with any U.S. government official or employee relating to Marie Yovanovitch, the US ambassador to Ukraine who was ousted by the Trump administration in 2019, the warrant said.
Agents seized more than 10 cell phones and computers from Giuliani's Manhattan apartment and office in raids.
The federal probe is examining Giuliani's interactions with Ukrainian figures and whether he violated a federal law that governs lobbying on behalf of foreign countries or entities.
Giuliani has insisted that all of his activities in Ukraine were conducted on behalf of former President Donald Trump.
At the time, Giuliani was leading a campaign to press Ukraine for an investigation into now-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
It has since emerged that Trump's allies are deeply troubled by the Giuliani raid.
Their fears emerged as a transcript of a conversation between Giuliani and a Ukrainian official was published, laying bare what seems to be the substance of the FBI's investigation.
Andrew Giuliani, son of the former New York City Mayor, mounted a spirited defense of his father after his apartment was raided this week
Rudy Giuliani, left, is pictured with Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, U.S. September 20, 2019
Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, testifies during the House Intelligence Committee in November 2019. She was ousted as ambassador in May that year
A transcript of his July 2019 call, which took place between Giuliani and Andriy Yermak, who at the time was newly-elected President Volodymyr Zelensky's top foreign policy advisor, was published by BuzzFeed on Friday.
Giuliani attempts, on the call, to establish a working relationship between Kiev and Washington DC - bypassing the usual State Department channels to speak directly for Trump, although he is at pains to emphasize that he cannot speak for his boss.
He is particularly emphatic that the new president should investigate Biden, who, while serving as vice president, had pushed for the firing of the country's chief prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.
Shokin, who was seen with suspicion in the West, was fired in March 2016, as part of an anti-corruption initiative developed by the State Department and coordinated with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Giuliani seeks an investigation, and wants Zelensky to publicly accuse Biden.
He also wants Ukraine to investigate possible interference in the election, and back the idea that Ukraine - not Russia - could have tried to tip the scales in favor of Trump.
'All we need from the president is to say: I'm gonna put an honest prosecutor in charge, he's gonna investigate and dig up the evidence, that presently exists and is there any other evidence about involvement of the 2016 election,' Giuliani tells Yermak.
'And then the Biden thing has to be run out.'
Giuliani says: 'He offered Poroshenko a $1.2 billion loan guarantee, critical to Poroshenko's success as president, in exchange for getting rid of a prosecutor general, that he didn't wanna get rid of.
'Somebody in Ukraine's gotta take that seriously.'
Giuliani then turns to Hunter Biden's energy firm, Burisma.
As part of a campaign to discredit Joe Biden and accuse him of influence peddling, Giuliani was keen for details of Hunter's work on the board of the company.
'That investigation of Burisma has been started, discontinued, started and discontinued about three times,' Giuliani complained.
He also issued a bizarre warning to the new president, via his aide, saying: 'What I wanted to tell the president is: be careful.
'Probably it's a little arrogant to say that. I shouldn't say that about being careful.
'But just as a person interested: be careful of the people around you, because… they can very easily… they can very easily get you into trouble.'
He did not provide more detail.
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