A US federal judge on Friday called for an independent assessment of evidence from electronic devices confiscated in recent raids of Rudy Giuliani’s office and home after rejecting his efforts to block it. Judge Paul Oetken said that this would “ensure the perception of fairness” in checking the 18 devices, including cell computers, and phones, which were seized during the April 28 raids, Reuters reports.

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Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have started investigating Giuliani’s associations with Ukraine. Investigations are underway to find out if Giuliani acted as an unregistered foreign agent while working as a lawyer for Donald Trump during his presidential tenure, Reuter reports.

Giuliani’s lawyer, Roberto Costello said that he considered the opening of a new investigation to be inevitable. “This ruling comes as no surprise to us”, said Costello. The US Attorney’s office refused to comment on the matter. Giuliani has not been indicted, and after the raids, he said that his demeanor had been “absolutely legal and ethical”, Reuters reports.

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Giuliani wrote, “The search warrants at issue here were based on judicial findings of probable cause, supported by detailed affidavits, to believe that evidence of violations of specified federal offenses would be found at the locations to be searched”, quoted Reuters.