The US government monitored Paul Manafort under secret court orders, @evanperez reports https://t.co/7Ay59IhuZG https://t.co/HR2C3VMknR
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 18, 2017
Amidst a wide-ranging investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN is reporting that former Donald Trump presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort was wiretapped by investigators before and after the election. This investigation, authorized by the court that handles Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests, stemmed from a secret order after Manafort became the subject of an FBI investigation in 2014.
According to CNN, parts of the intelligence collected by investigators includes communications between Manafort and the Russians which led to further inquiries based on the presumption that Manafort encouraged the Russians to aid the Trump campaign. CNN also reports that three sources close to the investigation have detailed the investigation and concur with those findings, but two of the sources familiar say that the evidence “is not conclusive.” This information comes after reports of “paranoid staffers” worrying about a White House aide possibly wearing a wire.
It is unclear when the new warrant started. The FBI interest deepened last fall because of intercepted communications between Manafort and suspected Russian operatives, and among the Russians themselves, that reignited their interest in Manafort, the sources told CNN. As part of the FISA warrant, CNN has learned that earlier this year, the FBI conducted a search of a storage facility belonging to Manafort. It’s not known what they found.
CNN’s report continues by stating that conversations continued between Trump and Manafort, presumably as he was wiretapped, after Trump took office. Their report also states that the FBI was not listening when Donald Trump Jr. hosted a meeting between a Russian lawyer along with Jared Kushner and Manafort in order to attain information on Hillary Clinton. Although, rumors have come out saying he tipped off investigators on the meeting.
The main takeaway of the FISA request, as CNN points out, is that the surveillance is so secretive, warrants rarely become public. This has led to widespread speculation that other members of Trump’s team could be being investigated without their knowledge.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/837989835818287106
Minutes after CNN’s report went live, the New York Times published a story on the FBI picking the locks of Paul Manafort’s home and copying hard drives and gathering other evidence of interest, capped by Mueller telling Manafort that he planned on indicting him.
(Via CNN/New York Times)