The Manafort Bombshell – What We Know

Federal Government Wiretapped Paul Manafort

Monday evening The New York Times and CNN both published exclusive bombshell reports about former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. 

If you feel like your head is spinning, you’re not alone. And given the staggering news, it should be.

So let’s try to boil this down a bit into easy pieces.

Here’s what we know, and to make it really easy, we’re going to bullet point everything.

Here we go:

• Back in July the FBI raided Paul Manafort’s home with a “no-knock” warrant.
• “Mr. Manafort is under investigation for possible violations of tax laws, money-laundering prohibitions and requirements to disclose foreign lobbying,” The New York Times states.
• According to the Times, the FBI picked the lock on his front door, and entered without even knocking. “They took binders stuffed with documents and copied his computer files, looking for evidence that Mr. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, set up secret offshore bank accounts. They even photographed the expensive suits in his closet.”
• The FBI also told Manafort point blank that they planned to indict him.
• “It is unusual for a prosecutor to seek a search warrant against someone who, like Mr. Manafort, had already put his lawyer in contact with the Justice Department,” the Times reports.
• “To get the warrant, Mr. Mueller’s team had to show probable cause that Mr. Manafort’s home contained evidence of a crime. To be allowed to pick the lock and enter the home unannounced, prosecutors had to persuade a federal judge that Mr. Manafort was likely to destroy evidence.”

• If all that weren’t enough, CNN reports that the both before and after the presidential election, federal investigators got permission from a FISA court and wiretapped Manafort.

• There was concern that Manafort may have been encouraging the Russians to help Trump.
• Many note that Trump has continued to speak with Manafort from time to time, which means that his conversations with Manafort very easily could have been collected as part of the court-authorized wiretapping. CNN’s Gloria Borger notes Trump was talking with Manafort as recently as March of this year. 

• Meanwhile, The New York Times reporting notes that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is playing hardball – big time. “The special counsel even took the unusual step of obtaining a subpoena for one of Mr. Manafort’s former lawyers, claiming an exception to the rule that shields attorney-client discussions from scrutiny.”
• For those wondering if these new revelations mean Trump was right when he accused President Obama of wiretapping him, no: 

A few more observations:

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