‘Investigators May Have Argued to a Federal Judge They Had Reason to Believe Manafort Could Not Be Trusted to Turn Over All Records’
Just two weeks ago the FBI executed search warrants and in a pre-dawn raid searched former Trump presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort‘s home. The raid came just one day after Manafort met with staffers on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and was not pre-announced.
“The search warrant was wide-ranging and FBI agents working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III departed the home with various records,” The Washington Post reports. “Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort, confirmed that agents executed a warrant at one of the political consultant’s homes and that Manafort cooperated with the search.”
The raid came as Manafort has been voluntarily producing documents to congressional committees investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The search warrant indicates investigators may have argued to a federal judge they had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all records in response to a grand jury subpoena.
Manafort’s name has allegedly been linked to millions of dollars in secret payments from a pro-Russian political party in the Ukraine.
“Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau,” The New York Times reported last year. “Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.”
UPDATE I: 11:21 AM EDT –
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