US government [Obama] wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/exclusive-us-government-wiretapped-
former-trump-campaign-chairman/ar-AAs9SQq?li=BBnb7Kz

US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort
under secret court orders before and after the election, sources tell CNN,
an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at
the center of the Russia meddling probe.

The 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. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence
is not conclusive.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team, which is leading the investigation
into Russia's involvement in the election, has been provided details of
these communications.

A 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. It centered on work
done by a group of Washington consulting firms for Ukraine's former ruling
party, the sources told CNN.

The surveillance was discontinued at some point last year for lack of
evidence, according to one of the sources.

The FBI then restarted the surveillance after obtaining a new FISA warrant
that extended at least into early this year.

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.

It is unclear when the new warrant started. The FBI interest deepened last
fall because of intercepted communications between Manafort and suspected
Russian operatives, and among the Russians themselves, that reignited
their interest in Manafort, the sources told CNN. As part of the FISA
warrant, CNN has learned that earlier this year, the FBI conducted a
search of a storage facility belonging to Manafort. It's not known what
they found.

The conversations between Manafort and Trump continued after the President
took office, long after the FBI investigation into Manafort was publicly
known, the sources told CNN. They went on until lawyers for the President
and Manafort insisted that they stop, according to the sources.

It's unclear whether Trump himself was picked up on the surveillance.

The White House declined to comment for this story. A spokesperson for
Manafort didn't comment for this story.

Manafort previously has denied that he ever "knowingly" communicated with
Russian intelligence operatives during the election and also has denied
participating in any Russian efforts to "undermine the interests of the
United States."

The FBI wasn't listening in June 2016, the sources said, when Donald Trump
Jr. led a meeting that included Manafort, then campaign chairman, and
Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law, with a Russian lawyer who had
promised negative information on Hillary Clinton.

That gap could prove crucial as prosecutors and investigators under
Mueller work to determine whether there's evidence of a crime in myriad
connections that have come to light between suspected Russian government
operatives and associates of Trump.

Origins of the FBI's interest in Manafort
The FBI interest in Manafort dates back at least to 2014, partly as an
outgrowth of a US investigation of Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian
president whose pro-Russian regime was ousted amid street protests.
Yanukovych's Party of Regions was accused of corruption, and Ukrainian
authorities claimed he squirreled millions of dollars out of the country.

Investigators have spent years probing any possible role played by
Manafort's firm and other US consultants, including the Podesta Group and
Mercury LLC, that worked with the former Ukraine regime. The basis for the
case hinged on the failure by the US firms to register under the US
Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law that the Justice Department only
rarely uses to bring charges.

All three firms earlier this year filed retroactive registrations with the
Justice Department.

It hasn't proved easy to make a case.

Last year, Justice Department prosecutors concluded that there wasn't
enough evidence to bring charges against Manafort or anyone of the other
US subjects in the probe, according to sources briefed on the
investigation.

The FBI and Justice Department have to periodically seek renewed FISA
authorization to continue their surveillance.

As Manafort took the reins as Trump campaign chairman in May, the FBI
surveillance technicians were no longer listening. The fact he was part of
the campaign didn't play a role in the discontinued monitoring, sources
told CNN. It was the lack of evidence relating to the Ukraine
investigation that prompted the FBI to pull back.

Renewed surveillance
Manafort was ousted from the campaign in August. By then the FBI had
noticed what counterintelligence agents thought was a series of odd
connections between Trump associates and Russia. The CIA also had
developed information, including from human intelligence sources, that
they believed showed Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered his
intelligence services to conduct a broad operation to meddle with the US
election, according to current and former US officials.

The FBI surveillance teams, under a new FISA warrant, began monitoring
Manafort again, sources tell CNN.

The court that oversees government snooping under FISA operates in secret,
the surveillance so intrusive that the existence of the warrants only
rarely become public.

For that reason, speculation has run rampant about whether Manafort or
others associated with Trump were under surveillance. The President
himself fueled the speculation when in March he used his Twitter account
to accuse former President Barack Obama of having his "wires tapped" in
Trump Tower.

The Justice Department and the FBI have denied that Trump's own "wires"
were tapped.

While Manafort has a residence in Trump Tower, it's unclear whether FBI
surveillance of him took place there.

Manafort has a home as well in Alexandria, Virginia. FBI agents raided the
Alexandria residence in July.

The FBI also eavesdropped on Carter Page, a campaign associate that then
candidate Trump once identified as a national security adviser. Page's
ties to Russia, including an attempt by Russian spies to cultivate him,
prompted the FBI to obtain a FISA court warrant in 2014.


--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party has run out of gas.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for ending the disaster of the
Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.

ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.

Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.