Trump says he was 'very, very surprised' by raid at Manafort's home

President Trump told reporters on Thursday that he was "very, very surprised" to learn that FBI agents conducted a pre-dawn raid in July at the Virginia home of Paul Manafort, who served as his campaign chairman for six months last year.

"You know, they do that very seldom, so I was surprised to see it," he said. "I was very, very surprised to see it. I thought it was a very, very strong signal, or whatever." Manafort's home was raided as part of the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and Manafort's spokesman, Jason Maloni, told CNN Manafort has "consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries and did so on this occasion as well."

Trump said he hasn't discussed the raid with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and it's been a "long time" since he last spoke with Manafort. "I've always found Paul Manafort to be a very decent man," he said. "He's like a lot of other people — probably makes consultant fees from all over the place. Who knows? I don't know, but I thought it was pretty tough stuff to wake him up, perhaps his family was there."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up