NEW YORK (REUTERS) – Rudy Giuliani, a personal lawyer for US President Donald Trump and a central figure in a congressional impeachment inquiry, has hired lawyers to represent him as he faces scrutiny by federal prosecutors in New York.

A former New York mayor and federal prosecutor, Giuliani wrote on Twitter that he is being represented by Robert Costello, a former New York federal prosecutor, and Eric Creizman and Melissa Madrigal of the law firm Pierce Bainbridge.

Prosecutors in the Manhattan US attorney’s office are examining Giuliani’s interactions with two men arrested in October for allegedly illegally funnelling money to a pro-Trump election committee and other political candidates, according to another person familiar with the matter.

Giuliani has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing.

Giuliani is a central figure in a fast-moving US House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into whether Trump abused his office for political gain.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives investigation is focused on a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former US Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served as a director of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

For nearly a year, Giuliani has pursued unsubstantiated allegations that Biden tried to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor to stop him from investigating Burisma.

Giuliani has said the two foreign-born businessmen who were arrested, Ukraine-born Lev Parnas and Belarus-born Igor Fruman, assisted him in this effort.

Giuliani tweeted on Wednesday that the investigation he conducted into what he called Ukrainian collusion and corruption was in defence of Trump, who he said was wrongly accused of colluding with Russia to influence his 2016 election.

A spokesman for the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office declined to comment. Creizman, of Pierce Bainbridge, confirmed he was representing Giuliani. Costello did not immediately return a call for comment.

Costello, the former prosecutor, has represented deceased hotel mogul Leona Helmsley and the late George Steinbrenner, who owned the New York Yankees.

According to his firm’s website, Costello served as the former deputy chief of the criminal division for the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, which brought the charges against Parnas and Fruman. Giuliani led that office from 1983 to 1989.

Parnas and Fruman are accused of using a shell company to donate US$325,000 (S$442,000) to the pro-Trump committee, America First Action, and raising money for former Texas Congressman Pete Sessions as part of an effort to remove the US ambassador to Ukraine. They have pleaded not guilty.

Giuliani told Reuters in October that he was paid US$500,000 to provide business and legal advice to Fraud Guarantee, a company Parnas co-founded.

Giuliani has said he had no involvement in the flow of money at the heart of the indictment of Parnas and Fruman.

As part of their impeachment inquiry, House Democrats have subpoenaed Giuliani’s communications in connection with his efforts to push the Ukraine investigation.

Trump has derided the congressional probe as a political smear, and Giuliani has said he would not cooperate.

Trump added Giuliani in April 2018 to his legal defence team against the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election to undermine Trump’s Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Giuliani quickly went on a media blitz in defence of Trump.

In March, Mueller determined there was insufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between Trump and Russia.

Costello told Reuters in March he had known Giuliani for 45 years. In April, Costello asked Giuliani about the possibility of Trump pardoning Michael Cohen, the president’s former fixer and lawyer.

In an April 21 email that leaked, Costello told Cohen he could “sleep well tonight. You have friends in high places.” Costello said Giuliani shot down the idea of a pardon.

Cohen, 52, pleaded guilty in 2018 to directing payments of US$130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels and US$150,000 to Playboy model Karen McDougal to avert a scandal shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied having the encounters more than a decade ago with Daniels and McDougal.

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