Russia

FBI Agents Raided Paul Manafort’s Home

Written by SK Ashby

One of this homes, that is.

The Washington Post first reported this morning that FBI agents working for special prosecutor Robert Mueller raided former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's home in Alexandria, Virginia.

Agents reportedly raided the home using a warrant granted by a judge who found probably cause to believe Manafort had not handed over all relevant documents.

Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The search warrant was wide-ranging and FBI agents working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III departed the home with various records. Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort, confirmed that agents executed a warrant at one of the political consultant’s homes and that Manafort cooperated with the search.

Shortly after the Washington Post published this report, the New York Times confirmed it and added that FBI agents were looking for financial documents.

Investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, recently searched the Northern Virginia home of President Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, for tax documents and foreign banking records, a sign that the inquiry into Mr. Manafort has broadened, according to a person briefed on the matter. [...]

[The] search warrant for the tax and foreign banking records suggests that investigators are looking at criminal charges related to the federal Bank Secrecy Act, which requires Americans to report their foreign banking accounts.

Everything we know about Paul Manafort, from his ties to pro-Russian oligarchs and his secret bank accounts in Cyprus, suggests a river of dirty money has flowed through him in many difference directions so we don't necessarily know what this is directly related to, but the Post and Times both speculate that evidence of Manafort's financial crimes may be used to compel him to cooperate.

If that's true and if Manafort is not actually the primary focus of the investigation -- if they're performing a rotorooter on him just to gain his cooperation -- the primary target could be someone above him in the Trump hierarchy, but there aren't many people above him not named Trump.