The FBI conducted a predawn raid at the home of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort at the end of July, the Washington Post reports, appearing with a search warrant to collect documents and other materials pertaining to their investigation on the campaign’s potential collusion with Russian officials.
Sources said that the seizure included documents Manafort has already submitted to Congress. Among the notes Manafort reportedly submitted to Congress are his notes from the now-infamous June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr and a Russian lawyer at the Trump Tower. Trump Jr published emails about the meeting that suggested he was expecting to receive information to use against Hillary Clinton’s campaign. In March, the AP reported that Manafort also secretly worked for a Russian billionaire with ties to Putin to advance a pro-Putin agenda under the Bush administration between 2006 and 2009.
The search warrant “indicates investigators may have argued to a federal judge they had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all records in response to a grand jury subpoena,” the Post reports. The raid could also be interpreted as a signal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to Donald Trump that he is pursuing the case aggressively.
Manafort’s spokesperson, Jason Maloni, confirmed to the Post that federal agents conducted the search at Manafort’s home on July 26, adding that Manafort cooperated. “Mr. Manafort has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries and did so on this occasion as well,” he said.