Posted on 09/19/2017 7:16:31 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is calling on the Justice Department to release transcripts of any intercepted communications he may have had with foreigners.
Manafort, a longtime Republican political consultant, also called on the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate the leak of details of secret surveillance warrants obtained by U.S. investigators.
“Mr. Manafort requests that the Department of Justice release any intercepts involving him and any non-Americans so interested parties can come to the same conclusion as the DOJ — there is nothing there,” Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni said in a statement.
On Monday, CNN reported that investigators obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Manafort prior to the presidential election. The wiretapping continued into early this year, according to CNN’s unnamed sources
It is unclear whether the warrant was obtained before or after Manafort left the Trump campaign in August. According to CNN, the surveillance on Manafort, who has a residence in Trump Tower in New York, picked up conversations he had with Russian operatives about the election.
That was the second FISA warrant obtained by investigators against Manafort. The FBI also conducted surveillance on the longtime Republican operative during a 2014 investigation into his consulting work for a Ukrainian political party. That surveillance reportedly ended without charges being followed prior to Manafort joining the Trump campaign last May.
Manafort is currently at the center of a sprawling investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
That probe began as an inquiry into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government, but Mueller appears lately to have focused on Manafort’s business dealings. Mueller conducted an early-morning raid on Manafort’s Virginia residence at the end of July. The New York Times reported on Monday that Mueller, a former FBI director, told Manafort that he will be indicted.
Whether or not Manafort committed a crime — and he has not been charged with anything — the leak of information about FISA warrants is a federal crime, Maloni noted in his statement.
“If true, it is a felony to reveal the existence of a FISA warrant, regardless of the fact that no charges ever emerged,” Maloni said.
Information about FISA warrants is classified and tightly held by government officials and the federal judges that approve them. Unauthorized disclosures of FISA information is also a felony.
At a House Intelligence Committee hearing in March, then-FBI Director James Comey testified that the leak of FISA information is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
In his statement, Maloni called on the Justice Department’s watchdog to “immediately” open an investigation into the leak and to “examine the motivations behind the previous Administration’s effort to surveil a political opponent.”
Trump’s Justice Department has recently ramped up its efforts to get to the bottom of a spate of classified leaks. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are overseeing the effort, which includes a task force involving FBI agents.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment about the Manafort leak.
Bluff call. The DOJ is in the Executive Branch. Let’s see if the Chief Executive grants the request.
I suspect his “nothing there” comment is in reference to himself.
Imagine the outrage if it were revealed that the Bush Administration had taped the conversations of Obama’s campaign manager.
Election night proved that the media doesn’t consider or even care that their left wing socialist coverage of every aspect of of society and politics is pathetic and completely unprofessional.
Common people are done with America’s media and their bias towards everything liberal and they better get used to Trump... He isn’t going anywhere and all their huffing and puffing won’t matter a bit.
Time for Mueller to put up or shut up.
I am beginning to wonder if Sessions does not have ties to all of these issues he should be investigating.
Something is preventing him from doing what he is supposed to be doing.
He’s a target of the swamp. It’s why they put it that way, rather than saying nothing illegal was discovered.
This and the democrat party spying on all of congress and I suspect the supreme court since they hired the Pakistani in 2004.
that was the first wiretap. going back to 2014 iirc, so two years worth
Precisely
This is sooo much worse than Wayergate. Just unbelievable that the commie dems haven’t been brought down by this
[There sure as hell is something there, and Barack Obama, Susan Rice and a lot of other people should be in prison right now because of it.]
Yes.
Add in Loretta Lynch and James Comey, gov’t property destroyer.
Sorry, Paul, no one’s home in DOJ. The foxes are there guarding the hen house so you won’t see justice in any form.
Resign, Sessions.
Sessions is Swamp, if he does anything, it will be to give Obama Cover.
lol - TOO quiet. Mueller is just collecting a paycheck. The fact that the media is 100% silent on the issue is telling....especially this far down the path.
“Time for Mueller to put up or shut up.”
This witch hunt has gone on now for over four months, with nothing leaked to the eager presstitutes to show any wrongdoing. Do they plan to try to stretch it out over the entirety of President Trump’s first term?
All of the wrongdoing we’re hearing alleged is from the left side of the aisle!
Mueller should be required to show what he’s got to McConnell, Schumer, Ryan and Pelosi, with Sessions attending—and a verbatim deposition transcript prepared for release to the public. Names of persons of interest and identifying facts can be redacted, but we want to know what Mueller has found on “Russia!” or shut this farce down.
If Mueller and that pack of scoundrels can’t justify his continued existence, shut this circus sideshow down.
Then have President Trump and the DOJ decide on an investigator to look into into `rat corruption, from A to Z. Most of America (that can read) won’t be surprised to learn that there is smoke and fire there.
Maybe he won't, maybe he will.
Maybe he will, but he'll wait. Maybe he'll pay out some more rope, so that certain parties will hang themselves with two nooses.
Where’s Sessions?
This is lawfare, and the correct response is, throw the Demwits into prison and leave them there.
The Canary Trap, as popularized by Tom Clancy in Hunt for Patriot Games, one of my most favorite fictional books.
I don’t care who you are, that’s funny!
Well, not in what it MEANS, but a pretty clever way to make the point!
I can’t wait for the day when Obama, Clinton, Lynch, Rice, Holder, and hundreds of other scum get investigated and sent to prison.
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