FBI's Manafort raid included a dozen agents, 'designed to intimidate,' source says

Fox News ^ | August 24, 2017 | Catherine Herridge

[Olog-hai]

The FBI’s July raid on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's Virginia home lasted 10 hours and involved a dozen federal agents, who seized documents labeled “attorney-client,” according to a source close to the investigation.

The July raid was first reported earlier this month, but the new details reflect the intensity and scope of the search, which the source described as “heavy-handed, designed to intimidate.” Elements of the account were backed up by a second individual also not authorized to speak on the record.

New details on FBI raid of Paul Manafort's home The FBI’s July raid on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's Virginia home lasted 10 hours and involved a dozen federal agents, who seized documents labeled “attorney-client,” according to a source close to the investigation.

The source said both Manafort and his wife were asleep when FBI agents entered the Alexandria, Va., condo without warning at about 6 a.m. ET. They did not conclude their search until late afternoon, around 4 p.m. ET. The 1,600-square-foot condo includes three bedrooms and a main living area. […]

“This is an unusual step; there is no getting around it,” former Justice Department official Tom Dupree told Fox News. “It is an aggressive step. I think it sends a very strong message both to Manafort himself and potentially other people who might be targets of this investigation that [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller is going to pursue this aggressively.” …

[TBP]

You had better say what we want or we’ll punish you.

[edie1960]

How Sessions’ “conscience” doesn’t somehow eat him alive, wracked with guilt, is beyond me!!!
For a supposed friend, he certainly wasted very little time in betraying the very man whom he endorsed for president!!

I was counting on President Trump’s DOJ to DRAIN THE SWAMP.
Tragically, he put the wrong man in charge, who opened the door to this outrageous WITCH HUNT.

While Manafort likely has a skeleton or two in his proverbial closet, that raid was totally unreasonable and excessive—especially since he was being cooperative with all requests.

[Ken H]

If it was unconstitutional, why wasn’t it extend to the lower classes before the 60s by activist judges?

If judges are ruling in accordance with original meaning of the Constitution, then they are not activist judges.

If a judge strikes down an anti-Second Amendment law passed by a state, for example, it is not judicial activism. It is Originalism.

Perhaps you would care to list the constitutional rights that activist judges in the 1960s have extended to the lower classes which led to the crime wave.

[SkyPilot]

How Sessions’ “conscience” doesn’t somehow eat him alive, wracked with guilt, is beyond me!!! For a supposed friend, he certainly wasted very little time in betraying the very man whom he endorsed for president!! I was counting on President Trump’s DOJ to DRAIN THE SWAMP. Tragically, he put the wrong man in charge, who opened the door to this outrageous WITCH HUNT.

Sadly, I give an amen to your post. You are spot on.

The Jeff Feckless defenders here on FR say "But Jeff supported Trump!"

Big deal! So did Chris Christie, and I don't see them urinating their pants over the fact that Chris wasn't gloated over by the President after the election.

Trump gave Feckless the honor, resources, prestige, and power of being the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in the United States - and Feckless used that honor to back stab the President, his cabinet, and all of us who voted for the President.

Jeff Feckless is a creature of Washington. He fawns over his "friends from the other side of the aisle", and I believe he never, ever intended to bring the Democrats to account for their crimes. He therefore lied to President Trump when he took the job.

You can add "liar" to "coward" - because that is what Jeff Feckless is.

I used to give him some benefit of the doubt, but no longer.

[SkyPilot]

Sessions probably commended the Very Special Agents for their compliance to The Rule of Law.

Just like Jeff Feckless did by cheering on the jack booted prosecters in the Bundy trial.

[major-pelham]

That is a very large problem. What if you were one of Manafort’s clients and the govt. seized your records? You’ve done nothing wrong. Your conversations with him are privileged. The illegal search and seizure litigation and poison fruit issues will be endless. It may never end now.

[trebb]

A dozen agents spent 10 hours ransacking a 1600 sq ft condo? They had to destroy some stuff to be that “thorough”...must have been tripping over each other.

[Dustoff45]

it was done at night and was a no knock

A Federal warrant may be served in daylight hours, beginning at 6am.

I did not read that this was a no-knock, anytime warrant. If it was, there was no reason to wait until 6 am.

The report is consistent with the service of a Federal Search warrant by federal authorities. They may well have been heavy-handed at the beginning, but that is the nature of controlling evidence sought as detailed in the warrant.

Not defending their actions, but commenting based on the report i read.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Looks like we’re getting to the NKVD stage, or the Geheim Stadts Polizei and the Tepakai? What next, beating confessions out of Trump supporters until they sign a confession that the Russians paid them to vote for Trump? Lets face it, its a fight for the headlines and a smoke screen to protect Obama and the Clintons. Sessions is too fluffy, he lacks the bearing, we need a hard ass General to dwell into the investigations of all of them. The whole administration of 2008 -2016, should be totally investigated, especially since they went through the trouble of destroying documents by the thousands and hard drives. NOOOOO, they can’t do that, there would be too many cockroaches exposed by the spot light. If Trump can bring a few out into the open, he would have 2020 tied up. LOL, this is like having Sam Giancana investigating the FBI. Had the situations been reversed, i.e. investigations of Hillary or Obama, the Media would be screaming by now, and the inner cities would be on fire..

[FreedomNotSafety]

Nope. Simply labeling something as priveleged doesn’t make it so. Not saying it isn’t.

[Hawthorn]

>> If he’s a lawyer and maintains an office in is home, as most do today, why would attorney-client privilege not apply? <<

Good point!

If he’s still a member of the bar in good standing, AND if he is acting formally as an attorney-at-law for a specific client, then the privilege would apply.

But it’s not enough just to be a lawyer. He must be acting officially in that capacity. For example, if your CPA has a law degree but is merely handling your routine tax filing, rather than his having been engaged formally by you as your attorney-at-law, then there is no attorney-client privilege if you get indicted over some criminal violation of the tax code. In such a case, your CPA-law-degree can be forced to provide info against you.

Or take the case of the extreme leftwing lawyer woman whose client was the imprisoned “blind sheik” in New York. She was illegally helping him communicate with his outside supporters. When she got caught, she tried to invoke attorney-client privilege. But the courts wouldn’t take the bait, and she ended up in prison herself.

In Manaforte’s case, he may have labeled some documents in such a way as to argue that his lobbying for foreign government clients was merely an aspect of his legal practice. Then the matter(s) might be litigated in federal court as to which items can be submitted in evidence. But given his failure to register properly as an agent for foreign interests, I gotta doubt that a federal judge or magistrate will cut him any slack.

[Hawthorn]

>> Beauregard Sessions an unrepentant Southerner <<

It’s JEFFERSON BEAUREGARD Sessions. So he’s doubly cursed!

(All statues and statutes in remembrance of him should be obliterated.)