Paul Manafort was under surveillance by the FISA court before, during, and after his six months as Donald Trump’s campaign chairman. That wasn’t because President Obama both hated Donald Trump and somehow knew that Manafort would sign onto the Trump campaign. It’s because there are few people in the nation more deserving of investigation than Paul Manafort.
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.
That Manafort was under investigation seems completely reasonable, considering:
All of that was before Manafort took a role in the Trump campaign. The idea that he would return to the United States, launder the millions he collected from Russia, Ukraine, and assorted torturers, without being under close observation by US intelligence agencies seems ludicrous.
And then there are Manafort’s actions while he was working for Trump, actions that included:
- He attended the Trump Tower meeting between Trump’s campaign top staff and representatives of the Russian government offering compromising material on Hillary Clinton as part of an announced government campaign to help Trump. During the meeting he took notes on his phone.
- In early August, CNN reported that surveillance of Manafort had uncovered efforts to coordinate between Russia and Manafort in his role on the campaign.
- Manafort has been connected to the efforts from the Trump campaign to make the GOP platform more Russia friendly.
And after his official time with Trump:
- Manafort worked with Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, associate Felix Sater and a pro-Russian Ukrainian MP to craft a “peace plan” that lifted US sanctions and gifted Crimea to Russia. This plan was then delivered to former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
- He received millions in loans immediately on leaving Trump’s campaign in financial transactions that are also under investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is sharing information with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
- It became clear that his twisted finances, which include an office in Cyprus, secret bank accounts, and huge loans from tiny banks, involve not just Manafort, but his son-in-law.
- The suspicions that Manafort was holding onto documents related to either the Trump campaign or his own actions as a representative of foreign governments which caused Mueller’s team to instigate a pre-dawn no-knock raid of one of Manafort’s properties.
Manafort’s endless ties to Russia more than met the high bar needed for the issuance, and re-issuance of a FISA warrant.
That investigation goes back to at least 2014. It’s still going. But there seems to be no doubt that Mueller intends to indict Manafort, likely on multiple charges that could include illegal foreign lobbying, tax evasion, money laundering … and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.