Mueller Time! Guess who was wiretapped – and told that the special counsel plans to indict him?
NYT reporter explains why Mueller’s Russia probe mirrors ‘an organized crime syndicate’ investigation 📺 (rawstory.com)The Trump-Russia probe 'has reached a critical stage' (businessinsider.com)
Remember that July 26 raid on Paul Manafort’s home? The press first got wind of it on August 9th. But there was one significant detail of the story that had not been revealed – until tonight:
Paul J. Manafort was in bed early one morning in July when federal agents bearing a search warrant picked the lock on his front door and raided his Virginia home. 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 special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, then followed the house search with a warning: His prosecutors told Mr. Manafort they planned to indict him, said two people close to the investigation.
That would definitely ruin my breakfast – not to mention that of co-consipa… ahem, close colleagues:
[A]ssociates of both Mr. Manafort and Mr. Flynn have received more peremptory treatment. Instead of invitations to the prosecutor’s office, they have been presented with grand jury subpoenas, forcing them to either testify or take the Fifth Amendment and raise suspicions that they had something to hide. At least three witnesses have recently been subpoenaed to testify about Mr. Manafort: Jason Maloni, a spokesman who appeared before the grand jury for more than two hours on Friday, and the heads of two consulting firms — Mercury Public Affairs and the Podesta Group — who worked with Mr. Manafort on behalf of Viktor F. Yanukovych, the pro-Russia former president of Ukraine.
But wait – there’s more!
US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, sources tell CNN, an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at the center of the Russia meddling probe.
The government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Donald Trump.
Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence is not conclusive.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, which is leading the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the election, has been provided details of these communications.
It’s no coincidence that these two stories have come out at the same time. It suggests that Manafort is about to – or has very recently – either cut a deal or not.
You may now drop “collusion” from your vocabulary and make liberal use of the term “conspiracy.”
