FBI was aware prominent Americans, including Giuliani, were ...

The revelation comes as the FBI this week seized Giuliani’s cellphone and other electronic devices as part of a long-running criminal investigation into whether the onetime New York mayor and personal attorney for Trump acted as an unregistered foreign agent.The FBI executes a search warrant at Rudy Giuliani’s homeThe plan to warn potential targets was separate from the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal probe of Giuliani, but it reflects a broader concern by U.S. intelligence and federal investigators that he — among other influential Americans and U.S. institutions — was being manipulated by the Russian government to promote its interests.Giuliani traveled in December 2019 to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, where he met with a Ukrainian lawmaker whom the U.S. government later labeled “an active Russian agent” and sanctioned on grounds he was running an “influence campaign” against Biden. One America News President Charles Herring said Friday the network was never contacted by the FBI “regarding Ukraine or people associated with Ukraine.” An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.The FBI last summer also gave what is known as a defensive briefing to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who ahead of the election used his perch as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to investigate Biden’s dealings with Ukraine while he was vice president and his son Hunter Biden held a lucrative seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.Johnson, a staunch Trump ally, recalled receiving a vague warning from FBI briefers in August, but he said Thursday that there was no substance to their cautionary message and that he did not view the meeting as a “defensive briefing” on his oversight of the Biden family’s foreign business ventures.“Regarding reports that I received an FBI briefing warning me that I was a target of Russian disinformation, I can confirm I received such a briefing in August of 2020,” Johnson said in a statement to The Washington Post. But, the statement said, “OAN’s interviews were prior to the sanctions and the reasons for sanctions were unknown to OAN at the time of the interviews.”U.S. sanctions Ukrainian lawmaker tied to Giuliani as ‘active Russian agent’On his trip to Kyiv, Giuliani met with Andriy Derkach, a politician sanctioned by the United States in September and accused by the Treasury Department of having been an active Russian agent “for over a decade” and maintaining “close connections with Russian intelligence services.” Derkach, who attended a KGB academy in Moscow, has denied involvement with any foreign intelligence agency and any illegal activities.In late 2019, before Giuliani’s trip to Kyiv, U.S. intelligence agencies warned the Trump White House that Giuliani was the target of a Russian influence operation, as The Post reported last year.