Report: Investigators wiretapped Manafort before and after the election

Paul Manafort.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Both before and after the 2016 presidential election, U.S. investigators wiretapped President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders, several people with knowledge of the situation told CNN.

Three people said the intelligence collected includes communications that suggest Manafort may have encouraged Russians to help with the Trump campaign, three people told CNN, but two of those same sources said the evidence was not conclusive. The wiretaps were authorized by the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and started after Manafort became the subject of a 2014 FBI investigation, centering around the consulting work he did for Ukraine's pro-Russia Party of Regions, CNN reports.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.