Special Counsel Robert Mueller had the FBI execute a search warrant against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in late July. He was home at the time. They also raided another home of his in the Hamptons earlier this summer. As Andrew McCarthy says, “Prosecutors don’t do pre-dawn raids on the home of a cooperating witness.” Manafort has appeared to cooperate with the FBI in public, but that may not be the whole story. I have thought he was guilty of colluding with the Russians since the beginning. But I don’t believe President Trump did. Manafort looks to be a plant and he took millions from the Russians. Trump was right to let him go.
Manafort did voluntarily testify in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 25th. The very next morning in the pre-dawn hours, the FBI showed up at his Alexandria, Virginia home with a search warrant. They left with computers and and a ton of documents, etc. I doubt Manafort saw this one coming. It was reportedly a wide-ranging search. There are only two reasons this was done this way. They could have felt that Manafort was likely to destroy rather than surrender relevant evidence. Or, this could simply be intimidation to get Manafort to crack.
FBI agents raided the Virginia home of Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman in late July, taking documents and other materials related to the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, Fox News has confirmed.
“FBI agents executed a search warrant at one of Mr. Manafort’s residences,” Manafort’s spokesperson Jason Maloni, confirmed to Fox News. “Mr. Manafort has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries and did so on this occasion as well.”
The Washington Post first reported the early morning raid.
Armed with a search warrant, federal agents went to Manafort’s Alexandria home during the predawn hours of July 26 – one day after he met voluntarily with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The search warrant seems to indicate that investigators may have had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all of the records requested in response to a grand jury subpoena, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the special counsel investigation.
Both Manafort’s personal and professional life are being scrutinized here not only because of possible tampering in our elections by Russia, but because of funds that were moved between various banks by and for Manafort that are connected to the Russians. As a lobbyist and a political consultant in the 1980s, Manafort worked with international clients including two dictators. He’s also connected to a number of wealthy Russian oligarchs and the Russian mob by way of Putin.
For Manafort’s part, he denies colluding with Russia. But that isn’t standing up under scrutiny very well as I understand it. In June, Manafort officially registered as a foreign agent for the work he did with a Ukranian political party from 2012 to 2014. Long after he was legally required to do so.
More from Andrew McCarthy:
Now, a search warrant is issued in a criminal investigation only if a judge finds probable cause that a crime has been committed and that evidence of this crime will be found in the place to be searched. The warrant is granted on the basis of an affidavit — usually drafted by the prosecutor and sworn to by an FBI agent — which tells the court exactly what crimes the agents are investigating and describes for the court the evidence supporting the claim that there is probable cause. Moreover, if agents wish to execute a warrant before 6 a.m., they must show good cause as to why this should be permitted. Generally, the explanation involves danger that evidence will be destroyed, or that agents will be at risk, if people inside the location are awake and alert when the agents knock on the door.
This could simply be a fishing expedition or they may have something on Manafort. There is no way to know at this point. Trump has distanced himself from Manafort as he should. But as McCarthy asks, “I wonder whether the deputy attorney general or the special counsel would inform the public whether the president of the United States is a suspect in a criminal investigation.” Good question.
Terresa Monroe-Hamilton is an editor and writer for Right Wing News. She owns and blogs at NoisyRoom.net. She is a Constitutional Conservative and NoisyRoom focuses on political and national issues of interest to the American public. Terresa is the editor at Trevor Loudon's site, New Zeal - trevorloudon.com. She also does research at KeyWiki.org. You can email Terresa here. NoisyRoom can be found on Facebook and on Twitter.