{"id":29517,"date":"2017-09-19T12:07:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T19:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=29517"},"modified":"2017-09-19T12:07:35","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T19:07:35","slug":"target-manafart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/19\/target-manafart\/","title":{"rendered":"Target: Manafart"},"content":{"rendered":"

It could not be happening to a sleazier sphincter.  Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller has  Trump co-conspirator Paul Manafart by the genitals like a starvation-crazed pit-bull, and I could not be more pleased.  I expected Mueller do do this, but I did not expect it so quickly or with such vigor and tenacity.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"0919Manafart\"<\/p>\n

Two stories that popped overnight suggest that special counsel Robert Mueller is aggressively pursuing Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President Trump\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

— <\/strong>CNN reports<\/strong><\/a> that \u201cU.S. investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election\u201d:<\/strong> \u201cThe 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 \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cA secret order authorized by the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) began after Manafort became the subject of an FBI investigation that began in 2014<\/strong>,\u201d per Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz and Pamela Brown. \u201cIt centered on work done by a group of Washington consulting firms for Ukraine’s former ruling party \u2026 The surveillance was discontinued at some point last year for lack of evidence \u2026 The FBI then restarted the surveillance after obtaining a new FISA warrant that extended at least into early this year.<\/strong> \u2026 Sources say the second warrant was part of the FBI’s efforts to investigate ties between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives. Such warrants require the approval of top Justice Department and FBI officials, and the FBI must provide the court with information showing suspicion that the subject of the warrant may be acting as an agent of a foreign power.\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

— <\/strong>The New York Times reports on its front page<\/strong><\/a> this morning that, after agents raided his home with a no-knock search warrant this summer, Mueller\u2019s prosecutors told Manafort that they planned to indict him.<\/strong> The story says the feds decided to pick the lock on Manafort\u2019s front door in Alexandria, Va., because they feared he might try to destroy evidence: \u201cThey took binders stuffed with documents and copied his computer files, looking for evidence that Mr. Manafort \u2026 set up secret offshore bank accounts. They even photographed the expensive suits in his closet<\/strong>.\u201d… [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Post<\/a>><\/font><\/p>\n

Rachel Maddow<\/a> spent over 21 minutes sorting these out.<\/font><\/p>\n