FBI raids Trump campaign manager's home

Agents seeking evidence for the Russia probe seized documents from Paul Manafort's home

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort
(Image credit: 2016 Getty Images)

FBI agents have raided the home of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, seeking evidence of overseas financial transactions.

The raid took place on 26 July, "in the pre-dawn hours" and resulted in officers "seizing documents and other materials related to the special counsel investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election", according to the Washington Post.

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Manafort's spokesman, Jason Maloni, partially confirmed the report. "Mr Manafort has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries and did so on this occasion as well," he said.

The Post says the raid marks an "aggressive new approach" by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is tasked with investigating possible links between Trump's campaign and Moscow.

It came the morning after Manafort was interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, during which "Manafort answered questions and provided investigators with notes from a 2016 meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russians claiming to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton," the New York Times says.

The decision to send in FBI agents "indicates that Mueller's office may not believe it is getting full cooperation", Politico reports, citing "several former federal prosecutors and attorneys involved in the Russia probe".

ABC News says the terms of the search warrant executed on Manafort's home suggest "that the FBI had convinced a federal judge that it had probable cause Mr Manafort had committed a crime and would not fully cooperate".

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